#Roman Build

[elodieunderglass]

And one amang, an Iyrysch man,

Uppone his hoby swyftly ran…

WAIT HANG ON - slamming the brakes on drawing this stupid picture - do you nerds even KNOW the etymology of the word “hobby”? The thing you do for pleasure? The thing you have too many of? The thing you spend too much money on and share with your friends? The thing tumblr probably is to you? Those hobbies?

It comes from a now-kind-of-extinct breed of Irish pony-horse. It was called the Irish Hobby. Supposedly the hobby got its name from the Gaelic word obann, or swift. They definitely were. They’d obann your pants clean off.

Fast tough little bastards, built for rough terrain and renowned for their speed and stamina, hobby horses belonged to the Celts, and their highly annoying style of mounted warfare. but their conquerors liked hobby horses a lot, kept them, used them for themselves, and found them useful enough, despite the fact that they also had famously useful things like mounted knights or horse archers. A lightweight Irish warrior, mounted on a hobby horse, was called a hobelar.

Reportedly and in depictions, hobelars rode without stirrups. Or saddles. Or bridles. Or - well - this is all sounding very improbable, because the hobelars COULDNT have just been charging around basically bare-assed on naked ponies, screaming, and somehow in the process undoing the composure of actual mounted armoured knights. Knights who, I remind you, had stirrups. Stirrups are useful! It’s quite likely the hobelars had some gear. And clothes. and weapons. And the ponies probably had some tack - I am picturing a bellyband that you could at least hang a saddlebag on, and a neck rope for catching the bloody thing, even if not a saddle. But the overall impression, somehow created by people on darling little ponies, was apparently quite striking and fearful.

I mean. God Forbid People Have Hobbies.

Anyway after a while, whatever people became the British had eventually conquered all of the rough terrain that hobbies were best at, and horse archers just got sexier, and mounted knights became aristos, and all the bog and forest people had been subdued, so it was time to sunset the hobelars. but WAIT! Hobby horses are still tremendously fun and appealing! They’re so fast! and you can ride them without a saddle! Sure, they’re not up to the weight of a mounted knight, or indeed a lot of guys… but surely we can still find a use for a hobby or two? In the back garden? Somewhere?

At which point an English king decided to keep hobby horses just for fun. No military application. No further development of the technology. Not for fun. Just as expensive, pleasurable, pets. Just for the joy of the thing.

And that is how hobby (activity done purely for pleasure) comes from hobby horse (small horse) possibly from obann (swift.) they’re very interesting and you should look all this up for yourself! because it sure sounds like Elodie doing a bit, doesn’t it?

Today, Irish Hobbies are functionally nonexistent. References for drawing include the Kerry Bog Pony, the Connemara, and (I personally think) Dartmoors and Exmoors. They’re said to have lent their speed to the Irish Hunter/Sport Horse and from there to the Thoroughbred, but every damn horse in the world claims relation to the Thoroughbred, and they can’t be THAT thoroughly bred.

At any rate - you can never have enough hobbies. Just be glad that yours aren’t expensive beasts with minds of their own, eating their heads off in the pasture! …Unless they are. In which case, you’re part of a proud tradition.

[escapismsworld]

📍Church of the Gesù, Rome

The Church of the Gesù, constructed between 1568 and 1584, is considered one of the finest examples of Roman Baroque architecture.

[m1male2]

Panteón, Roma

[ancientcharm]

Inside the Pantheon, the eternal building of Ancient Rome

Photo: © Claudio Colis

[roy-co]

[anniekin]

whoever made this deserves prison

[thesilicontribesman]

Roman Building Stone with the symbol of the 20th Legion: the boar, and the symbol of the 2nd Legion: Pegasus. Pegasus is unfinished, perhaps indicating a change of garrisons.

Corbridge Roman Town, Northumberland

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Anatolia, TÜRKIYE

[helyeahmangocheese]

do you think jason grace ever thinks about how new rome and, as an extension of it, the empire of the US perpetuates the same power imbalances/power hoarding and inequity that the old Roman Empire did and do you think he ever gets angry about how he was raised in that system to the extent that it is impossible to look at Neo-Classical New England buildings without his blood boiling? do you think he and annabeth share haunting feelings about the architecture of government buildings that were designed to emulate temples for gods that are just as fucked up and selfish as humans with too much power and control can be? does it give them chills, knowing the founding fathers were demigods, and that history is a cycle?

[subtilitas]

Roman Hutter - Apartment building, Zug 2023. Photos (C) Markus Käch.

[salvadorbonaparte]

Myths, nation- and identity building are really fascinating because one thing I noticed in Europe is that no matter what kind you contact you had with the Roman Empire people are using it to build identity. "The Romans came here and here are some Roman buildings and roads and the name of this place is Latin in origin :D" vs "The Romans never conquered us in fact we absolutely beat the shit out of them :D"

[corvid-sol]

City life in ancient Rome

[zombilenium]

Nicola Pellati's House, Strevi, Piemonte, Italy,

This charming villa was built in the early 1600s when it served as the private residence of a prominent local bishop. It was later acquired by the family of Nicola Pellati, an architect and geologist who was among the most respected luminaries in his field during the 1800s.

Photographs by Roman Robroek

[m1male2]

Roma

[ancientcharm]

Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome.

Photos : Andreas Wiessner

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

Roman Robroek Photography