On Thursdays I am a man of my word
Nov. 11th, 2004 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaSpot question for the day:
Without googling, does the following phrase mean anything to anybody ?
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.
Without googling, does the following phrase mean anything to anybody ?
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 02:36 am (UTC)Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 03:30 am (UTC)[Senatus] Populus[que Romanus]
[Imp(eratori) Caesa]ri Divi N[ervae f(ilio)]
[Traiano (Optimo?)] Aug(usto) Ger(manico) [Dac(ico) (Parthico??)...]
[Pont(ifex) Max(imus) Tr]ib(uniciae) Pot(estatis) XV[?? Imp(erator) VII (or above) Co(n)s(ul) V (or above) P(ater) P(atriae)...]
Translation:
The Senate and the People of Rome
To Imperator Caesar, son of the divine Nerva, Trajan (Optimus) Augustus Germanicus Dacicus (Parthicus??), Chief Priest, Holder of the Tribunician Power for (at least) the 15th time (and no more than the 19th), Imperator for (at least) the seventh time, Consul for (at least) the fifth time, Father of his Country... (and who knows what follows after that).
It is an honorific inscription, because it is in the dative case (the ending 'ri' tells me this). I know it's to Trajan, because only he claimed to be the son (actually adopted) of Nerva, the only emperor who was deified and whose name began with an 'N', whilst also holding the title 'Germanicus' (victor over the Germans). I know it's from between 110 and 115, since 110 is the year he held tribunician power for the 15th time, and 115 was his 19th. Working from that, I can guess the minimum number of times he must have been hailed as 'Imperator' and have held the consulship. I can't be sure if he would yet have started using 'Optimus' as an official part of his name, which he started doing in 114. It's also unlikely he would have gained the title 'Parthicus' (victor over the Parthians), as this happened in 116, but possible if I have misread the character after the 'X', and it is actually an 'X', not a 'V'. I also can't quite tell how long the lines must be. I can place a reasonable guess on the grounds that 'Populus' probably comes in the middle of a line which has nothing but 'Senatus' and 'que Romanus' on either side, but I can't know whether there was also further empty space beyond those in either direction. Fuller information about this would allow me to place more accurate guesses as to what titles he did and didn't hold by the time the inscription was cut.
At this stage, you are either thinking 'wow, very impressive', and are about to post to tell me the correct 'solution'. Or, you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, and are about to explain to me that you really just used this image because you thought it looked nice.
Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 03:38 am (UTC)I'm impressed, even if Addedentry isn't ;)
Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 03:54 am (UTC)It is part of the inscription on Trajan's Column in Rome (which I have visited, but I used the photo behind that link). I chose it as a classic(al) serif letterform with an enormous influence on 'modern' typography.
Your chain of deductions is an impressive example of how classicists infer so much about the ancient world from sources which are so partial (in both senses).
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:02 am (UTC)In case it's of interest, there's a fantastically thorough-looking site dedicated to Trajan's Colum here (http://cheiron.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~trajan/).
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:12 am (UTC)Which is what I was looking for! I just wanted to check that the plaster cast in the V&A that I was thinking of was of the correct column.
(Google image search sorted me out.)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:24 am (UTC)Although the Victorian outlook did have some strange and terrible results overseas, there is also something rather splendid about a mindset that just can't grasp that there may be things it can't achieve.
My favourite example of this is the White Horse (http://www.mikekipling.com/yorkshire_moors/ky4033.htm) at Kilburn (that's N Yorks, not N London!) To celebrate Victoria's jubilee, someone decided to cut a white horse into the hillside.
Some impertinent local pointed out that, er, it wasn't actually, er, a chalk area, and so, er, a white horse wasn't possible.
They cut the white horse anyway, and it (still) gets whitewashed every year :)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:30 am (UTC)The white horse story is great, although if I didn't know from you that it was real, I'd be yelling 'Photoshop' on seeing the particular picture you linked to.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:33 am (UTC)It is real, though, honest, I've walked round it! And, if you accept teeny-tiny-white-blob-on-hills-over-there you can see if from trains running on the East coast mainline (look East about 15 minutes south of Darlington).
no subject
Date: 2004-11-11 04:06 am (UTC)Now that I see the full text, I can see my deductions were more-or-less bang on, although I missed out Trajan's own adoption of the name 'Nerva'.
I can now date the inscription to precisely AD 112, and tell you that the last two lines of it (the bits I couldn't guess were there from your icon) say 'to show how high a mountain, and the site for such great works, had been cleared away'. It is probably a claim that the height of the column represents the height of a hill cleared away to build Trajan's forum, but scholars are a bit dubious about whether this is really true...
Guessing what I guessed from the section of the inscription I could see initially is actually a lot less hard than you might think, since imperial titles were very standardised, and most inscriptions start in very much the same way. But still, I'm proud of my deductions!
I also agree that the script here is absolutely beautiful: official inscriptions in this period are pretty much the apogee of ancient epigraphic technique.
Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 05:03 am (UTC)Actually, I have just friended you, because it's obvious we have a lot in common, and I also have a feeling I gave you some of my ear-rings (through Laura) just before I left Oxford at the end of August (although I don't think we've ever formally met).
And if you think Christopher Lee is the sexiest man in the world (which obviously he is!), may I invite you to join
Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 11:40 am (UTC)It is cruel to blame everything on
Oh, and thank-you for drawing my attention to
Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-11 11:53 am (UTC)Re: Because I'm a classicist, and I can't help it:
Date: 2004-11-12 03:57 am (UTC)Good God, woman, not more cheese!
It was full of cheese already :(