Month: November 2010

Byzantine automata – the emperor is on the throne!

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Hero of Alexandria devised various water-powered machines in antiquity.  But one of the ways in which the Byzantine emperor impressed the barbarians was the presence of automata at his court.  Mechanical marvels were part of their arsenal of influence.

One account records that the emperor had a throne which could whisk him up towards the ceiling.  It doesn’t sound all that safe, actually.  Byzantine robes could be voluminous, and I wonder whether any emperor ever fell off!  Did the imperial throne have a seat-belt, I ask?

I thought I would see what I could find on these by a google search.  I found few primary sources.  One page told me that one of the artificers was Leo the Mathematician (790-870), although I could find no details.

Another book was more detailed.  Constantine Porphyrogenitus (913-54) in his Book of ceremonies apparently mentions three automata related to the “throne of Solomon”.  These include trees with singing birds, roaring lions, and moving beasts.  Liudprand of Cremona in his memoirs of his trip to Constantinople in 949 tells us [1]:

In front of the emperor’s throne was set up a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species.  Now the emperor’s throne was made in such a cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher and was to be seen up in the air.  This throne was of immense size and was, as it were, guarded by lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue.  Leaning on the shoulders of two eunuchs, I was brought into the emperor’s presence.  As I came up the lions began to roar and the birds to twitter, each according to its kind, but I was moved neither by fear nor astonishment … After I had done obeisance to the Emperor by prostrating myself three times, I lifted my head, and behold! the man whom I had just seen sitting at a moderate height from the ground had now changed his vestments and was sitting as high as the ceiling of the hall.  I could not think how this was done, unless perhaps he was lifted up by some such machine as is used for raising the timbers of a wine press.[2]

Theophanes Continuatus tells us in the Vita Michaelis 21 (Bonn ed., 1838, p.173, ll.6-10), that the emperor Theophilus (829-842) had automata, which his successor Michael III (842-867) destroyed.  Other chroniclers also mention these, apparently.[3]

[1] G. Brett, The automata in the Byzantine ‘Throne of Solomon’, Speculum 29 (1954), 477-87, via this link.
[2] J.Becker, Antapodosis (Hannover-Leipzig, 1915), 6,5, tr. Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 209-10.
[3] Bibliography in Littlewood, Gardens of the palaces, p.32, n.139.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It’s all a bit boring here at the moment.  I can’t pay any attention to antiquity because of the pressure of other dull but necessary things.  The days are short, the evenings dark, and all that jazz.

I don’t know how interesting people find the details of producing the Eusebius volume.  All the proof corrections are in, and I now need to spend some serious time processing them into the PDF so they can be sent to the typesetter. 

The bureaucracy with getting an “account” set up at print-on-demand firm Lightning Source grinds on — amusingly they demand an annual fee to do business with you, but I don’t think there is more for me to do.  But ad-hoc printing is not their thing.  I’ve had to do the proof copies via Lulu.

The cover design that I want is now in my mind, and will consist of a dark green cloth covered hardback with gold lettering; author, title, and, lower down, publisher logo.  The logo design people, Add Design of Leiston, have sent me some possible logos today, and they all look good and possible.  I’ve not told them yet, but the chances are good that they will be doing the cover setup and the website as well.

I’ve decided that the Syriac text needs to be reset in a larger font — it’s just too tiny as it stands, and I think this is partly the fault of the Meltho fonts themselves, which seem smaller than usual. 

On a different note someone asked me if I had a PDF of a manuscript of al-Makin.  I hunted around last night and found that I did.  But not enough time to do anything about it.

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How to find a lost manuscript of Eusebius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The lost manuscript of the full text of Eusebius’ Gospel problems and solutions was last seen in Sicily five centuries ago.  But it could quite possibly still be there.

It might be nice to search for Sicilian mss.  I was thinking about it last night.  We have a couple of clues.  Latino Latini writes that Sirleto had seen the ms. in Sicily.
 
1.  We need to work out what Cardinal Sirleto was doing in Sicily, and where he was doing it.  A study of his life should provide clues, and possibly his correspondence is extant (published would be nice, but improbable).  This might tell us where he found the ms.
 
2.  We need to work out what collections of Greek mss exist in Sicily, and also which were taken elsewhere (to Naples? to Spain?)  An enquiry of specialists like N.G.Wilson should provide clues.  Are there Greek abbeys there?
 
3.  We know (how) that Aurispa sent a shipment of Greek patristic mss from Constantinople to Sicily a century earlier.  Why to Sicily?  Where to?  Where might they have ended up?  Is this one?
 
Once we know the answers to these, and have a list of search sites, then it becomes a question of looking in catalogues, and visiting collections.
 
Might be an interesting project!
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End-titles in Greek verse

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An email brings me word of a new publication by F. Schironi on the ends of books and the titles that appeared there, mainly connected with Greek poetry.

A systematic and chronoloical investigation into the nature and development of end-titles in papyrus rolls and codices of hexameter poetry from the III century BC through the VI century AD. The bulk of the evidence for presentation of hexametric verse derives from Homeric papyri (51 papyrus copies), although Hesiod’s Theogony, Works & Days, and Shield(two), and Oppian’s Halieutica likewise supply data (one). For comparative purposes the author also provides a sampling of end-titles in non-epic genres. The discussion of individual papyri and summation of the results are rich and informative. Includes bibliographical references, charts with comparative statistics, and pertinent indices. 

We’d probably better not ask what the price is — the blog is afraid to give it! — but there is a PDF summary available here.  I give the full url because the site can be a bit cranky:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx?c=icp;idno=7523866.0025.179

Book-Ends and Book-Layout in Papyri with Hexametric Poetry – Francesca Schironi

The present article is a very brief summary of a monograph I have completed which consists of an analysis of the way ancient manuscripts (rolls and codices) containing hexametric poetry mark book-ends.   I have addressed two main questions: 1) if and how these manuscripts mark the end of books and  how end-marks change over time, especially with the adoption of the new format of the codex; and 2)  how epic poems in rolls and codices were arranged, in particular whether, after the end of one epic book,  another book followed and, if so, where it was placed, i.e. in the same column (or page) or in the next one.

…

The present analysis allows us to identify some clear patterns and to understand the way ancient manuscripts containing epic and above all Homeric poetry marked the end of books and organized their content over a period of time ranging from the 3rd century BC to the 6th century AD.

…

The paragraphos was one of the signs used to mark the end of a book and it consisted of a line at the left margin stretching under the first letters of the last line of the book. This line was used to separate visually the last line of a book from the first line of the next book. … The papyri in our data set prove that the common claim that Ptolemaic papyri used to have the entire poems written continuously in one, very long roll without distinguishing one book from another is false.  … All the codices available to us have an end-title. This is normally in the full form of the genitive of the name of the poem, followed by the letter designative of the book which has reached the end.  

It is very good news that this summary paper exists, so that thereby this intricate subject may reach a wider audience.  It indicates that the monograph must be a work of considerable interest and precision, and I sincerely hope the conclusions are taken seriously and not merely forgotten.

Now what about a similar study on prose texts?

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New Mithras frescoes in Syria

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Mike Aquilina sends me word of an exciting find in Syria:

Syrian Archaeologists: Rare 3rd Century Frescos Undergoing Restoration at Hama Museum 
By H. Sabbagh     

Syria (Hama) – A group of experts from Poland are currently working to restore a number of rare frescos dating back to the 3rd century AD at the Hama Museum laboratory.

According to Director of the Hama Archaeology Directorate Abdelkader Ferzat, the frescos are murals that came from the temple of Mithras in the site of Horta hill in Apamea.

Ferzat said that the frescos were found in previous excavation seasons and were transported to Hama Museum along with their fragments and broken pieces where they were preserved for the purpose of studying and restoring them later.

He said that the Polish experts are currently using special techniques to repait and restore the frescos, which will be displayed later in the museum.

And look at these gorgeous colour images!

Syria fresco image of Mithras in a tauroctony

The main figure to the left is Cautes, the torchbearer.  The figure with the radiate crown must be Sol.  Mithras himself is holding a golden arrow — a sun-beam.  Damage has obliterated the bull.

I hope there are more images of this.  The vibrant colours make such a change from those cold white sculptures that we all know.

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Did the Romans believe their myths?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Blogger N.S.Gill is apparently asked some version of this interesting question often enough that she has compiled an FAQ on it.  She writes:

Almost every week I simplify a welter of contradictory stories for the Myth Monday.  … Some readers ask how the ancients reconciled seemingly unrelated versions of the same event.

Historian Charles King (The Organization of Roman Religious Beliefs, by Charles King; Classical Antiquity, (Oct. 2003), pp. 275-312.) provides insights into how the ancient Roman polytheistic, pagan religion worked that make sense to me, so I’ve extracted ideas from his 39-page article into an FAQ – Did the Romans Believe Their Myths?

I imagine the question arises from people used to the Christian approach to life, where beliefs determine behaviour and worship. 

But I have read that the reverse was the case in paganism.  It didn’t matter what you thought personally — who cared? So long as the right rituals were carried out, the sun would come up in the morning.  Temples didn’t gather congregations; they were more about doing things like sacrifices.

In a sense an ancient temple was more like a nuclear power plant than a church.  It doesn’t matter whether you believe in physics in the former; only what you do.

I wonder if any ancient source actually says this?

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A new harvest of myths

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Christmas is coming, and with it comes the annual flood of stale old stories cynically designed to cast doubt on whether Christmas is a Christian festival, and eagerly believed by those who feel that way inclined. 

The favourite “authority” for these folk is Wikipedia — once one of their friends has suitably amended it, of course. 

I discovered this morning that one of these gentry had rewritten the summary of the article on Sol Invictus to tell various falsehoods about Sol Invictus being derived from Mithras.  Charmingly, the fraudster had tried to put some substance into his claims by pasting verbatim chunks of text and scholarly references from the Mithras article — material written by me, and of no conceivable relevance to Sol Invictus. 

Needless to say I deleted all this twaddle, but for how long?

While hunting around for some vaguely scholarly sources on the origins of Christmas, I came across Susan K. Roll, Towards the origins of Christmas.   There is a preview on Google books, here.  From this I formed a good opinion of the book and its referencing.  With luck I will find a PDF, and be able to use it as a source for correcting Wikipedia.

UPDATE: I found this Dilbert cartoon which somehow indicates the problem.

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