Listening to Max Meyer (Brown) talk about the trees at Aphrodisias and of course Zoilos got a shout out. Listening to a brief summary of his career, I immediately thought about Orlando Patterson’s concepts of enslavement and the key role of natal alienation. I often teach manumission in the Roman context as perpetuating natal alienation by perpetuating the enslaved person’s structure in the Roman familia. I often teach this through naming customs.
BUT Zoilos managed to use his manumission to in fact elevate his status in his community of origin and seems to have retained his original name at least in part. An exception that proves the rule… I want to think more.
For context.
non sequitur.
The trees discussed were date palms. Speaker connected to Ishtar, fertility, and economic display of imported plants needing special call. No particular mention of date palm association with Phoenicia. I am thinking also of Nicolaus of Damascus being the name-sake of Augustus’ favorite dates. It also provides a great precedent for the trees of the Flavian templum pacis and might just possibly take some influence from the plantings in the theatre of Pompey at Rome. I wonder about other precedents.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 
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