Welcome to Digital Antiquities

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News & Updates

Digital Antiquities is in development!

Development on Digital Antiquities, a new hub for ancient Mediterranean research, is finally underway! The initial idea for the project dates to mid 2018, however work consisted primarily of a few prototype designs. Beginning in earnest in early 2020, Digital Antiquities is poised to be a versatile and powerful internet library. Posted on 3 September 2020

You shouldn't be reading this

None of this should be publicly online yet, I'm just too lazy to migrate the dev environment out of a production/web-facing VM. So if you're reading this enjoy, nothing much here does anything yet. Eventually it'll be full of content and useful information but for now it's test pages and errors aplenty. Posted on 3 September 2020

Trajan's Column

Find spotRome Province/RegionLatium et Campania (Regio I) Date113 CE Literature

Original Inscription

SENATVS·POPVLVSQVE·ROMANVS IMP·CAESARI·DIVI·NERVAE·F·NERVAE TRAIANO·AVG·GERM·DACICO·PONTIF MAXIMO·TRIB·POT·XVII·IMP·VI·COS·VI·PP AD·DECLARANDVM·QVANTAE·ALTITVDINI MONS·ET·LOCVS·TANTIS·OPERIBVS·SIT·EGESTVS

Interpolated Transcription

Senatus populusque Romanus Imperatori Caesari Divi Nervae Filio Nervae Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico Pontifici Maximo tribunicia potestate XVII Imperatori VI Consuli VI Patri Patriae ad declarandum quantae altitudinis mons et locus tantis operibus sit egestus

AuthorityEastern Roman Empire Date550 CE DenominationSemissis MetalGold MintConstantinople Weight2.1g Diameter2.3cm Axis2.3° Obverse TypeDiademed bust of Justin I, facing right LegendDN IVSTINVS PP AVG Reverse TypeWinged Victory LegendVICTORIA AVGGG | CONOB

ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα· ἐγὼ δʼ οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν. μάλιστα δὲ αὐτῶν ἓν ἐθαύμασα τῶν πολλῶν ὧν ἐψεύσαντο, τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ ἔλεγον ὡς χρῆν ὑμᾶς εὐλαβεῖσθαι μὴ ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ ἐξαπατηθῆτε

How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers, I do not know; but I, for my part, almost forgot my own identity, so persuasively did they talk; and yet there is hardly a word of truth in what they have said. But I was most amazed by one of the many lies that they told—when they said that you must be on your guard not to be deceived by me,

ὡς δεινοῦ ὄντος λέγειν. τὸ γὰρ μὴ αἰσχυνθῆναι ὅτι αὐτίκα ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ ἐξελεγχθήσονται ἔργῳ, ἐπειδὰν μηδʼ ὁπωστιοῦν φαίνωμαι δεινὸς λέγειν, τοῦτό μοι ἔδοξεν αὐτῶν ἀναισχυντότατον εἶναι, εἰ μὴ ἄρα δεινὸν καλοῦσιν οὗτοι λέγειν τὸν τἀληθῆ λέγοντα· εἰ μὲν γὰρ τοῦτο λέγουσιν, ὁμολογοίην ἂν ἔγωγε οὐ κατὰ τούτους εἶναι ῥήτωρ. οὗτοι μὲν οὖν, ὥσπερ ἐγὼ λέγω, ἤ τι ἢ οὐδὲν ἀληθὲς εἰρήκασιν, ὑμεῖς δέ μου ἀκούσεσθε πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν—οὐ μέντοι μὰ Δία, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, κεκαλλιεπημένους γε λόγους, ὥσπερ οἱ τούτων,

because I was a clever speaker. For I thought it the most shameless part of their conduct that they are not ashamed because they will immediately be convicted by me of falsehood by the evidence of fact, when I show myself to be not in the least a clever speaker, unless indeed they call him a clever speaker who speaks the truth; for if this is what they mean, I would agree that I am an orator—not after their fashion. Now they, as I say, have said little or nothing true; but you shall hear from me nothing but the truth. Not, however, men of Athens, speeches finely tricked out with words and phrases,

Ravenna, the Other New Rome

For three and a half centuries Ravenna served as the seat of imperial and royal power in Italy, and this illustrious history has left the city with a wealth of well-preserved Late Antique art and architecture (eight of these sites have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna). When Constantinople was founded it was envisaged as a "New Rome", a monumental city to serve as the permanent seat of power in the East. In the West the old Rome had lost its political supremacy and and the Western Empire was without a permanent seat of power like Constantinople until Honorius permanently relocated the imperial court to Ravenna in 402. After the fall of the Western Empire in 476 Ravenna was retained as the capital of both Odoacer's Italian regime, and the Gothic Kingdom that came to power in Italy in 493. Following Constantinople's conquest of Gothic Italy in 553 Ravenna was again kept as the capital of Italy, a status it retained until the Lombards conquered the city, and the last remnants of Byzantine Italy, in 751. Thus for more than three centuries Ravenna was effectively the "New Rome" of the Western Empire and its successor states. This exhibition explores the architectural and artistic highlights of Ravenna's imperial centuries, which blended together Classical, Christian, and Western & Eastern Late Antique styles and iconography with great skill.

View the Exhibition