ancientpeoples

[ancientpeoples]

Statue of Priapus

Roman Imperial Period

170–240 CE

Bearded Priapus has a fillet with herringbone enrichment tied around his brow, and a cloak over his head and shoulders. He wears a high-belted sleeveless tunic over a long-sleeved tunic. He is holding them up to contain a lapful of fruits. His erect phallus also acts as a support for the fruit. High, rustic boots adorn his feet, which stand on a plinth.

[ancientpeoples]

Marble relief: terminal figure of the fertility god Priapus set in a landscape with a sepulchral urn on a pillar.

Roman, c. 1st century CE

[ancientpeoples]

ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED LEKYTHOS

CIRCA 510-500 BCE

Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus.

[ancientpeoples]

For the day crowd. ☺️

Perversa funera pompa Retulit a tumulis: fugere cadavera letum.

"The funeral procession reversed, she returned the dead from the tomb, bodies fleeing death."

Lucan's Pharsalia 6.531-532

AncientPeoples is back from the dead!

[ancientpeoples]

Perversa funera pompa Retulit a tumulis: fugere cadavera letum.

"The funeral procession reversed, she returned the dead from the tomb, bodies fleeing death."

Lucan's Pharsalia 6.531-532

AncientPeoples is back from the dead!

[ancientpeoples]

Black-figured storage-jar (amphora) with a boy mounted on a centaur (perhaps Achilles and Chiron) between palmettes.

500 BCE-480 BCE, Etruscan

[ancientpeoples]

deus est mortali iuvare mortalem.

“For a person to help a person, that is god.”

Pliny the Elder, Natural History II.18

[ancientpeoples]

Multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus, adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad īnferiās, ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortūna mihī tētē abstulit ipsum, heu, miser idignē frāter adēmpte mihi, nunc tamen intereā haec, prīscō quae mōre parentum trādita sunt trīstī mūnere ad īnferiās, accipe, frāternō multum mānantia flētū, atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque valē.

“Carried through many nations and over many seas, I arrive, brother, at these miserable funeral rites in order that I might give you the last offering of death and speak in vain to your silent ashes. Since fortune took your very self from me, oh miserable brother, unfairly taken away from me; now, nevertheless, for the moment receive these things––which by the ancient custom of our parents have been handed down as a mournful offering for your burial––greatly soaked with a brother’s tears, and for forever: hello, my brother, and goodbye.”

Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carm. 101. for his brother who died in Bithynia, written in the 1st century BCE.

[ancientpeoples]

Glass head pendant on a gold earring

These pendants were used as protective amulets to ward off evil. Similar pendants are frequently represented on Cypriot votive statues and figurines, particularly "temple boys."

Phoenician or Carthaginian,  3rd–1st century B.C., Hellenistic Period

Source: Met Museum

[ancientpeoples]

Gold three-finger ring

Roman Syria, 3rd–4th century A.D., Late Imperial or Late Antique

This ring exemplifies a flamboyant type of costume jewelry that was especially popular in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. The three finger bands support five colorful settings, containing pearls, glass imitation gems, and a central green bead (a modern replacement).

Source: Met Museum

[ancientpeoples]

Glass finger-ring, 2.3 cm across (7/8 inch)

Roman, 1st century A.D.,  Early Imperial Period

Source: Met Museum

[ancientpeoples]

Incrēdibile est quantō dēsīderiō tuī tenear. In causā amor prīmum, deinde quod nōn cōnsuēvimus abesse. Inde est quod magnam noctium partem in imāgine tuā vigil exigō; inde quod interdiū, quibus hōrīs tē vīsere solēbam, ad diaetam tuam ipsī mē, ut vērissimē dīcitur, pedēs dūcunt; quod dēnique aeger et maestus ac similis exclūsō ā vacuō līmine recēdō.

“It is incredible by how much desire of you I am held. The reason: first, love, then that we are not accustomed to be apart. That is why I spend a great part of nights awake contemplating your likeness; that is why by day, during which hours I was accustomed to visit you, my feet themselves––as is most truly said––lead me to your room; that is why, at last, distressed and sad and similar to someone shut out by an empty doorway, I withdraw.”

A letter from Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny the Younger) to his wife, Calpurnia. Early 2nd Century CE.

[ancientpeoples]

Gold ring with onyx intaglio stone

The intaglio depicts a man (a boy standing behind him) offering a severed head to a general, who is seated in front of a herm.  A soldier leaning on a spear stands behind the general.  

Roman,  late 2nd–early 3rd century A.D. (Mid-Imperial)

Source: Met Museum

[ancientpeoples]

Portrait of a young woman in profile carved out of an amber-coloured sard stone, intended to be set in a ring. 1.6 cm high (5/8 inch)

Her hairstyle, with a "French roll" on top of the head and a small chignon at the back, was in fashion during the Augustan period and occurs on coins of Octavia and Fulvia.

Roman, from Cyprus, ca. 1st century A.D. (Imperial, Augustan or Julio-Claudian period) 

Source: Met Museum 

[ancientpeoples]

Nihil dūrāre potest tempore perpetuō; cum bene sōl nituit, redditur ōceanō; dēcrēscit Phoebē, quae modo plēna fuit; ventōrum feritās saepe fit aura levis.

“Nothing can endure for all time; when the sun has shined well, it is returned to the sea; the moon has grown small, which was just now full; the wildness of winds often becomes a gentle breeze.”

A graffito found near a tavern in Pompeii.

[ancientpeoples]

Gold ring with a glass cameo.  Cameo has a white nude male figure carved out of a blue glass background surrounded by a gold bezel.  (2.9 × 0.8 × 1.8 cm)

Roman, from Cyprus, 1st–2nd century A.D. (Early or Mid Imperial Roman)

Source: Met Museum

[ancientpeoples]

Glass bracelet with moulded rectangular segments on the curved band and fish-like flippers at both ends, black in colour, about an inch high and 3 inches across (2.4 x 6.8cm).

Roman (from Cyprus), made in the late Imperial Period,  ca. 4th–5th century A.D.

Source: Met Museum