I find it strangely impossible to teach and look with my own research eyes. Like even in this museum I didn’t take a single picture of some of my favorite reliefs like the midwife or the knife makers or the vegetable and animal sellers. Why? Because even though the museum was optional a handful of students decided to tag along to learn and my impromtu lecturing left no space in my brain for thinking ahead to wanting my own photos of these objects. I had no idea this was how my brain worked. I think for all those reliefs my number one impression was their small scale. I’d enlarged them in my mind’s eye and created something of a false memory.
The vivid colors in the frescoes were intense. I wonder if this is because they have been more recently excavated and/or differently conserved from those in the Naples museum? The pigmentation was so rich and so deep.
I love the relationship of mortal and divine this image captures. Not just in scale but also in posture and attitudes. It almost looks like Hercules would have preferred a libation for his cup rather than ‘just’ the sweet smells of the incense being springled on the thymiaterion. Also the skin tones are really interested. The mortal is far paler almost a color contrast we might associate with gender difference, but here I think it is about life style. The mortal is not the massive athletic warrior of the divine and thus does not have the sunburnt skin.
This little relief was not associated by the labeling with Christianity and of course in the story of Christ among the scholars of the temple he is always beardless as it is one of the v few canonical stories of his childhood. Yet… It is clearly of a type that had a deep impact on Christian art. I like that the notes are being taken in codices, perhaps waxed tablets with multiple ‘pages’. The hand gestures so well capture the depth of the disputes above which the central teacher quite literally rises on this little platform. His own hand gesture seems to be intent on calming the dispute with his gentle authority. Aesthetically I’m in love with this. I many need to blow it up, print it on say water color paper so as to even creatively colorize it for my office back on campus. Or it would make a great basis for a fantastical collage.
I’m sure I’ve seen nearly solid blue walls but I cannot think where else. It was such a deep a beautiful shade, vibrant.
The dress and pigmentation of this Thanatos evokes deep Etruscan antecedents. I want to show this in future classes next to Etruscan tomb painting.
This figure was labeled as a Lar, but she seems quite different certainly another protect spirit associated with place, we have the male and female snakes on which Harriet Flower has written so brilliantly as spirits of the land on which humans dwell.
This relief and its reconstruction is fascinating to me because of the parallels with RRC 344/1. I’ve written on directionality and body posture on this coin on this blog before (and probably in my 2021 book, but I’m too lazy to check at this moment as I don’t have a copy to hand here in Rome). The heads of the two men in the reconstruction face each other like on the coin, but the foot position does not match and this calls into question if this reconstruction is accurate. Notice that for the right hand man we have a bit of lower leg and ankle including the top of a yummy lion skin boot (I think). The direction of that boot strongly suggests he’s exiting stage right. I want to think much harder about this at some point.
Here I’m most interested in the furniture, especially that large wood cupboard at the foot of bed, but we also have a foot stool, SOMETHING, a three legged table, and a lamp stand. How would you describe the something. I should have gotten a better close up.
The tomb doors are excellent and I should have worried about capturing the four seasons better but I only had eyes for the fasces with AXE.
Juno’s Geese, making this absolutely with out doubt the temple of our beloved Juno Moneta. Her temple thus had ionic columns.
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In the following outdoor images of mosaics the right hand image had simply been slightly de-skewed using my iPhone’s native software.
Something about the shape of the palm trees reminded me so strongly of date palms versus other species, I was so surprised not to see any bunches hanging from them. The fish are very fishy with clear spikes and gills and belly scales, not dolphin like. I wondered if they might evoke garum production.
The star eye of the dolphin is precious. I feel I should have taken more pictures of all the ships. There was one with a great winch on its stern end. And both of these ships seem to have raised gangways of their bows. Really what is the corvus if not a gangway weaponized? And, who doesn’t like a lighthouse. Many were very squat in their rendering. This one is taller than most with with its four layers. Maybe I’ll ask for a Pharos birthday cake one year.
Ace and I. Waiting for the rest of the troop to arrive. It you want to follow along with my travel log you are welcome to do so. All my daily posts from this trip.
I mean this blog is my professional place and there shall I’m sure be many reflections not connected to my teaching from the next three weeks in Rome with 14 awesome students. And yet, this is also central, and perhaps you want to follow along with the non-sense of the logistics and planning.
Scroll to the the bottom for later updates and minor edits.
Yesterday I chose to stand and observe campus protests because I believe in free speech and tolerance in all public spaces but especially educational spaces. I abhor the use of police force in these instances. I was not there to support either the pro Palestinian or pro Israeli protestors and was insulted by both for my actions. Those insults are another form of free speech and I celebrate their ability to publicly criticize me and others..
Let me start where I ended up yesterday as a faculty observer to peaceful student protests.
I stood back as the riot police corralled the everyone on the quad towards the front gates of campus. The gates were narrow. The closer the tail end of the observers and random bystanders got to the gates the more aggressive the police became even as we were complying and asking for clarification on the directions we were being given. To my left, less than a meter from me, a student was arrested for no reason apparent to me or those others walking nearby. He was walking peacefully with officers and faculty to the gates. I asked what he had done. No answer. The police formed a circle to block those with cameras from recording him being forced to the ground.
On the other side of the gates we were witnessing intense violence and overcrowding. The chaos was terrifying. People were being hurt. As it be came clear I was going to shoved in that mob, I started stating loudly that I was not going out there and it was not safe. I was told to stand aside. They then started to arrest another male faculty member recording events and trying to return to his office. I started yelling his name at the top of voice. They released him. Next I saw a hijabi student whom I believe to have been a random bystander being forced through the narrow gates in to the mob violence. I started shouting “don’t send her out there! it is not safe!”. The officer who had let me remain on campus along with my colleagues, then told me:
“if you keep shouting I cannot protect you”
I stayed silent then. I feel complicit for doing so. I used my privilege to protect myself.
Outside the gates chaos led to what I hear to be some 14 student arrests, maybe more maybe less. Ambulances had to be called. The police used a taser on at least one person. Pictures in the media focus on this violence. The bloody faces.
A colleague texted about shielded a group of students and then riding the subway with them until they were well clear.
Another colleague has written me about not being able to get off campus with their students.
Yet another colleague was being messaged by their students who had tried to come to class that they could not get on campus and were now caught unawares in the chaos right between the subway entrance and gates. He tried to go and help and was turned back.
I waited in my office. Messaging with colleagues outside.
Eventually, I retrieved property for those who could not return and decided to ‘brave’ crossing campus to get to my car. As I exited the building I ran into security clearing the building and telling students to leave the ground floor. Still no official mass announcement had been sent directing community members how to behave or what was happening. We have the ability to text and email everyone in an emergency. The lack of information was the most unnerving. It left me not knowing what to do or if my actions would be construed as contrary to police orders or how I or those left on campus were expected to leave with reports of violence outside multiple entrances and exits.
How did we get to this point?
When I got to campus at about 10 am, my faculty had alerted me to unusual security measures and asked me to follow up with administration. I did so and received a message that the security concern was not specific to Classics.
During common hours, time set aside for no classes so clubs and meetings can happen, a smallish group of students set up a small protest on the lawn. I’d estimate about 20-30 participants, certainly less than 50. This protest included banners and the erecting of tents. The erection of temporary structures are forbidden under the recent local campus policy approved by a council consisting of admin, faculty, and students. I am told but did not witness campus security was ordered to remove the tents. This is said to have created a minor scuffle between students and campus security but certainly heightened tensions, but campus security moved back and the small protest continued peacefully. Reports of NYPD community liaison officers in the President’s office led to some union leaders to go to the office to offer any aid to defuse the situation. They say they were rebuffed. Following this many faculty and other community members began to actively observe the event from windows and the areas around the quad. There was much discussion about the danger of police violence against students. There was a small peaceful counter protest of 3-6 students. The two groups exchanged harsh words but also danced to the same chants. The chatter was about how beautifully normal all this behavior was for a college campus. Students peacefully expressing themselves.
The campus library announced on social media an ‘internet outage’ and that the building would be closed for the remainder of the day. There is a wide belief this was a manufactured excuse to prevent any attempt to occupy the building. However, at no time did I see any protestor move towards any building or even off the grass where they might block free flow of non participants. I similarly heard of no such actions or attempts from those present when I was not.
In the mid afternoon I attended a student research conference to support my mentees. This event was in the president’s own board room over looking the quad. The conference and presentations continued without interruption. The protest did not interfere with normal academic activities.. I checked in with colleagues and returned to my office to do paperwork.
A few minutes before 5 colleagues let me know that it appeared that police numbers were rising and that faculty had gathered to form a line between protesters and police to try make a statement that force was not necessary. The faculty all agreed that our only goal was to protect the students but that we would follow all police orders as and when they were articulated. The goal was peaceful dispersal.
As I stood with the faculty, I also periodically went to talk to senior colleagues in the campus administration. I witnessed them negotiating with the students representing the protestors and also liaising with the NYPD. Things I heard said by those administrators and NYPD representatives:
Taking the tents down was insufficient. [This seemed to be a change from earlier messaging.]
The campus president did not want the NYPD involved: this was the University Chancellor’s decision. [I’ve since credibly heard that the Governor was also involved.]
The NYPD liaison made clear in my hearing that a full dispersal was going to happen regardless of what the campus administration wanted because that is what had been ordered.
I saw deep fear on those administrator’s faces. Fear for our students. I saw individuals who were doing everything in their power to deescalate and felt powerless to do so.
As the riot police entered through the Bedford gates faculty formed a long line. The student protestors asked us to step aside so they could march. We did so. They began marching in the direction of the gates on Campus Road and Hillel Strreet but were turned back by CUNY security and penned in by the NYPD riot police, or perhaps I should say the strategic response unit. The NYPD then got behind the protesters and fanned out into a long line and began moving everyone towards the Bedford gate as described above and no one was allowed to go into the buildings. I believe most people swept up and ejected from campus were bystanders and observers not protesters, including students just trying to get to class.
The recorded message said that the protesters were trespassing. Earlier we’d heard the student broke the Henderson laws. I am not sure how either of these things are true, but I am no lawyer. I do know everything was peaceful and non disruptive on campus and that it was the ejecting of students that led to violence.
I wish there had been text and email updates sent to the community. I wish the dispersal order had first come in that fashion. I wish dispersal had not been through a violent bottle neck. I wish none of this had happened.
If I remember more I will add it. I write to understand my own memories. I know everyone present experienced it differently. It is by sharing our experiences that we learn and understand.
Below updates added 13 May 2025.
“Officers turned to expelling my male colleagues. I told one officer that a particular colleague was an Israeli citizen. Then that colleague was allowed to stand by me, safe from the mob.” – This colleague believes my words were not the source of the policing decision but his own conversations with the officers which were not based on his nationality. Out of respect for this I’ve moved these words down here as part of the record of what I originally said but no longer part of the narrative as I originally believed to be true. I defer here to his own experience.
I was not on quad when pink flyers were distributed to protesters. I asked colleagues for documentation of the time they were distributed as many seem to be using my above narrative as a time line of last Thursday. The photo time stamps suggest the distribution was shortly before 3.45 pm. When I arrived on the quad at 5 I was unaware these flyers had been distributed and I suspect many observers were as well.
I only heard about the distribution after the event was over. I’ve heard colleagues ask why only one group of protestors received these fliers. I cannot be certain if this one-sided distribution is true. I’ve likewise heard colleagues voice concerns that student office workers were asked to distribute these to fellow students. Again I cannot confirm this is true only that it is a current topic of conversation.
I want to be clearer than I was in my above text on a few points:
There was a moment where all the tents were taken down by the protestors themselves. I believe this was after the announcement via a ‘mic check’ by the protestors to the protestors that the college president had delivered their demands to the Chancellor. All of this was after 5 pm as I was not present before that time. It was the belief (mine and others) in this moment of many observers that the protesters was now ending their civil disobedience (the tents) as a response to this ‘win’. It was after this that the NYPD made clear to campus administrators on the the quad and thru them to the protestors that the police would be requiring a full dispersal. Because I had not seen or heard of the pink fliers I did not know in that moment it was a re iteration, not a new statement. I believe the protestors then re erected the tents at this point in response to the news that the police were entering campus regardless. The president’s friday communication to faculty and staff acknowledged the deflation and re erection of the tents but notes that this was not sufficient as the structures (deflated tents) were not moved off campus and the protestors did not disperse.
I will only point out that the iron in ramo secco makes the bars lighter not heavier. Iron is a lighter element than Copper or Lead or Tin. The Iron must remain a mystery. It render an admixture (not a true alloy) that is at once difficult to make and also completely impractical for any utilitarian purpose. I discuss this v briefly in my 2021 piece (no. 6)
I’ve been writing only emails and texts and other pieces of non-sense. This isn’t the first blog post I’ve written since April 15 but hopefully on this one I’ll hit the publish button, rather than the draft button. I did the school run and then stole some time to take a walk and talk to a bestie, now I’m stealing time to write just to stay in the habit. You almost got a gender studies deconstruction of “Honey, I’m Good” a catchy song my kids keep playing on which I have many thoughts on how it constructs male sexuality and female agency. Short answer I think it is problematic, but that sort of writing isn’t really what I tend to do publicly so I’ll save it for tomorrow and another convo with another bestie over beers.
As I have been mentoring students on research and writing, I ‘ve been talking more about my own practices. One of which I’m not sure I’ve articulated (but you will certainly have noticed if you read this blog regularly) are these chatty diary-esque paragraphs in italics at the beginning of posts. The italics is how I signal that it isn’t the real post, but rather the warm up exercise where I loosen my mind and my fingers by just typing the running commentary that is always in my head. Connecting my internal voice to the words that appear on the screen is key to letting me write freely on more ‘serious’ topics. In some ways it is all the same. I have to be able to articulate my thoughts and experiences and observations and starting with the this type of “here’s where I’m at” scene setting works a treat to get me writing and the words and ideas flowing.
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Comfort reading for me is often adjacent to my work but never on my work. I tend to reject any historical fiction that is set in Rome, ditto movies, shows. They feel like work. Sometimes I can read actual scholarly literature in my field for leisure if it is different from my primary research. So for example I can read on Republican theatre or Imperial Architecture if my main focus is on the coins. This runs the risk of being too distracting though with the potential to pull me into a new line of research.
I find the late antique and medieval much safer recreation. In fiction I don’t know enough to worry about ‘accuracy’ and instead enjoy the plot and tidbits of historical window dressing. Fiction these days I almost exclusively enjoy via audiobooks. The Company of Liars pulled me in and left me hungry for more of a similar vein. I thought of returning to Umberto Eco or Orhan Pamuk; for both their medieval historical fiction is my absolutely favorite. Yet, the world is burning and I wanted something lighter with more guardrails (genre conventions). I’ve started on the Sister Fidelma series which I was surprised and pleased to learn was written by the same author as the Cadfael series, just under a pseudonym. They are very much in the old fashioned Agatha Christie style of mystery. Still as the world is burning, narrative is often too much. I prefer non-fiction to dip in and dip out. And occasionally poetry but that is another post.
Get to the point, LIV!
So the two non-fiction works that I’m currently obsessed with are those photographed above. Laonikos Chalkokondyles (b. 1430 CE) wrote a history of the victory of the Turks over the Greeks from the Greek perspective in the style of Herodotus and with shockingly little religious narrative focalization. He treats the rise of Islam as history coming full circle from the Greek victories over the Persians. He has all the gorgeous digressions and narrative style of Herodotus and feels like an old friend come again. Kaldellis makes slightly different translation choices as I might have, but he’s very clear about why he does so and the logic is sound and about the expectations and frame of reference of his most likely readers, i.e. those more familiar with Byzantine studies than I! The facing text in the Dumbarton Oaks series means there is no issue or true confusion. I find it striking though how accustomed I am to the Loeb Greek font so that this slightly different font feels ‘wrong’ on my eyes. I do enjoy the larger size of the physical volumes in this series and the I Tatti series. I’m reading this in a linear fashion and trying not to skip ahead to the book 3 ethnographic treatment of the Islamic Law and Mohammad as law-giver.
The other book is by a Jewish traveller making his way across the Mediterraean and Middle East in 1165-1173 CE. It is very easy to pick up and set down and dip in and out of. I find this perfect for the night stand. Last night and the inspiration for this little writing exercise, I read sections on Tyre, the Samaratians, and Jerusalem. Both Laonikos and Benjamin engage with an reflect back to their experience of the ‘classical’, the long shadow of antiquity in their world. A world dominated by Christianity but to which they both positioned themselves as outsiders, non-participants in the dominant world view, but commentators on that world.
In Tyre Benjamin tells us you can take a boat out onto the water and look down at the ruins of the ancient city. You can see all the places now submerged just as they once were. In Jerusalem he talks about Muslim and Christian constructions: the holy sepluchre, the dome on the rock. But he’s much more interested in the remnants of the temple and what he identifies as Solomon’s palace. Likewise in Caesarea he emphasizes the connection to Augustus and the magnificence of the structures. He tries to make sense of why based on the laws of Moses the Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gezirim.
Both authors make sense of their contemporary realities through a deep awareness of the Classical. They expect their readers to be equally alive to, familiar with this past. I wonder if this is in part because of their rejection of the Christian framework for making sense of the world. Antiquity offered an alternative share point of reference to a diverse audience.
Ok I can now do other things. I’ve written words and reminded myself of my whole intellectual self. On to my day job.
RPC VIII, — (unassigned; ID 2359), cf. all RPConline images of Mt. Gerezim. The sacred mountain is held on the back of the imperial eagle (common from Caracalla onwards), and here has the Marsayas statue that was in each colonial forum echoing the Marsayas in the Roman republican Forum. cf. RRC 363/1.
I had to dig out some things from my files for our taxes yesterday and found myself remembering all the images I’d taken on my travels last spring. As I’m still in the delightful phase of post EU travel where I go to bed at 7.30/8 and wake up at 5 am naturally, I felt maybe I could enjoy myself over coffee with these pictures and recording what I see.It is always good to exercise the writing muscles and deepen the images on this site for future use. If any of these images are useful to you, let me know and in most cases I can send you a higher resolution.
This mosaic from the Suburban baths is a nice teaching parallel for the Neptune Amphitrite mosaic from a domestic context in Herculaneum. The blue and shells are just the start. The central themes echo each other in male gods undone by desire. The cupids steal away Mars’ arms. Venus’ swans watch from the corners of the arch. Above this the freeze is more watery. Mermen engage with sea-griffins and just out of view we have the suggestion of architectural panels. I had a little conversation about the pediment yesterday on Bsky. We settled on altar and thunderbolt, eagle and globe, and cista with purple robe and scepter. I almost wonder if there might be a crown in that design. I’d need a better photo. Image the hands that collected the shells and sorted them and the artists who set each one to create this tapestry of color and texture and pattern.
Again from the Suburban Baths (I think, relying on memory, here so I should really check before saying that officially) a harbor scene fresco. The red and the grey sea blue and soft brown-greys all are just so delightfully pleasing to my esthetic. Generally I like harbor scenes to better understand the iconographic details. Here the eyes on the water line emerging from the froth are particularly stunning. The small lighthouse to the right a nice reminder that the famous pharoi are much the same shape as the more common, less monumental constructions of every harbor. The ship in the background has arched covering on the poop deck. I thought it reminded me of something on the palestrina mosaic but no. I was recalling other curved structures there not an exact parallel. The oars of the ships create fantastic color blocks. They feel over long and out of proportion but perhaps true to a visual effect of such ships moving in water and rhythm of the oars. In the rear we see lots of small vertical hash lines, likely representing the spears of troops on board, a marine landing party. The Roman landscape tradition is almost always a genre of exploring the human dominance over or utilization of the natural world. The focus prioritizes the human over the natural.
Here we’re in one of the urban baths. I like again for teaching the echoes of painting styles in plaster. Architectural fantasies are a common theme of domestic wall painting. Commonly I use as the primary teaching example the Boscoreale bedroom from the Met. It is good to show students these artistic esthetics cross the public/private divide and also different media. I also like the hints of pigment and how we must re color the environment for the original effect. I often talk to my students about the intensity of the Mediterranean sun and the quality of the light and how that changes the experience of color. I ask them to think about modern Caribbean esthetics and how that palette also plays with light and reflection off the water. It isn’t the same palette but the parallel helps them re conceptualize ancient art without defaulting to the polished white marble so beloved by the Victorians.
I’ve not found one of these amongst my control marks but I’m leaving it here largely because of how control marks have sparked my interest in technologies. Reconstructions like this are critical for the historical imagination. We can consider the human cost of the enslaved labor used to power this grinder. The Romans had all the skills and technology at their disposal for an industrial revolution and yet their elites found it more convenient to invest in exploitation rather than mechanical solutions. While I cannot romanticize the horrific exploitation of our own industrial revolution, nevertheless I would argue that a rejection of slavery, an abhorrence of child labor, and an understanding of the collective power of workers has driven progress and resulted in efficiencies unknown to the Romans. We are only hindered from future development by our willingness to turn a blind eye to current exploitation and a refusal to distribute benefits of automation to the whole of society rather than just capitalist elite. There must be dignity in work and humanity in our policies and goals.
To be continued as time allows. There are some 300 photos in the folder from this two day trip! Eek.
Chankowski, Andrzej S. “Torch races in the Hellenistic world: the influence of an Athenian institution?.” Journal of epigraphic studies: 1, 2018 (2018): 55-75.
But what was it?! And who could buy it without committing sacrilege? Could it have been land? Are there other sources for this source or revenue?
χρυσίου λίτρας ἐνακισχιλίας
Why give the value in gold? 88 isn’t a period where we find aureii. Sulla’s gold came from the east…
Could this reflect in anyway the appearance of Numa on the coins of 88 BCE? RRC 346
[ I’m listening to Mads Ortving Lindholmer on Philotimia in Appian. A convincing reading of the views of the author towards the Romans and who their motivations serve as historical causality. ]
Liv Mariah Yarrow 
