By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 7 February 2025
When Septimius Severus became Roman Emperor in 193 AD, his wife, whom he had married in 187, was Julia Domna, a native of Emesa (now Homs), meaning Rome had its first Syrian Empress.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 7 February 2025
The written biographies of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus (r. 218-22 AD) claim that he oversaw an effort to replace the traditional gods with the Syrian sun god of which he was the high priest, and that this was part of the reason he was overthrown. There is, however, no physical evidence for an Elagabalan religious revolution, and we have an idea of the kinds of evidence that should show up where a ruler has tried to impose a new religious dispensation and it has been rejected by his successors because we have counter-examples.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 April 2023
The ancient Greek assumption that physical and moral worth were inherently connected can be seen in the term “kalos”. The word is often translated into English as “beautiful”, which is literally correct but misleading in so far as it implies the word relates solely to visual aesthetics; such an understanding is too narrow and anachronistically imposes divisions between categories that the Greeks did not regard as separate. “Kalos” is better translated as “handsome” and “noble”: it was a term for things “socially sanctioned as excellent”, and axiomatically encompassed a judgment on form and spirit.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 19 June 2021
The dates that the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament were composed has a great impact for Christians, of course, but also for historians, particularly on the matter of whether Jesus ever existed, and really for everybody living in the civilisation this religion has built. Continue reading
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 June 2021
A painting representing the Byzantines use of “Greek fire” to repel the Arab siege of Constantinople, 674-78
The use of the word “Byzantium” for the Eastern Roman Empire is inescapable, though it is best thought of as a term of convenience rather than definition. For one thing, the inhabitants never called themselves “Byzantines”: they always thought of themselves as “Romans”, though using the Greek work “Romaioi”. The easiest way to see the problem is to ask: When did the Byzantine Empire begin? Continue reading
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