Mars the Avenger

By Alan Scribner

CreateSpace, 2012
ISBN: 978-1463789787

Mars the Avenger is an historical mystery set at the height of the Roman Empire. In the novel, Marcus Flavius Severus, a judge of the Court of the Urban Prefect in the city of Rome is assigned to investigate the disappearance of the wife of a Roman senator.  At the same time, a sensational crime is perpetrated in the City when the body of a murdered man is discovered on the steps of the Temple of Mars the Avenger.  As the investigation unfolds, the two cases become connected to a love affair seventeen years before in the Roman orient.

Judge Severus, with the assistance of his court and police aids, tracks down clues and witnesses throughout the city of Rome to find an answer to the mystery.  The investigation leads them through the city and society of ancient Rome.  Scenes are set, among other places, in a slave market, in the majestic public baths of Trajan, in wealthy villas and tenement apartment houses in which most Romans lived, in a tavern in the notorious Subura district and at the chariot races in the Circus Maximus.

There are also scenes in a Roman court and the book is accurate as to the criminal laws of the time, including the use of judicial torture.  All laws, rescripts and legal procedures are from Roman law sources.

The mystery is finally unraveled at a Greek style symposium on murder.  Through a series of shrewd deductions, the judge solves the case – but to his own consternation and in conformity with the observation of Tacitus that all human affairs are pervaded by irony.

Scribner uses his background in criminal law, both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, and his research of Roman courts, laws, crime and police methods to help bring his novel to life for readers. He believes that his historical mystery will attract readers who enjoy reading crime thrillers as well as those who enjoy learning about ancient cultures. It also introduces a perspicacious new detective in the person of Roman judge Marcus Flavius Severus.

Alan Scribner is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School. Scribner was a former assistant district attorney in the office of Frank S. Hogan in New York County. He is also an independent scholar of ancient Rome and co-author of “Anni Ultimi: A Roman Stoic Guide to Retirement, Old Age and Death.”  He is retired and lives in New Hampshire.

The study, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology and conducted in Lisbon’s National Archaeology Museum, initially examined three mummies through the use of X-rays and advanced computerized tomography scans. Those of M1, a male Ptolemaic Egyptian mummy, were particularly of interest as they revealed several dense bone lesions located mainly on the spine, pelvis and proximal limbs, leading to the diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer.

For long, researchers have identified poor lifestyle choices and carcinogens as the main culprits behind this insidious disease. However, M1’s case suggests that investigators may have undermined the role of genetics in developing cancer. “We’re starting to see that the causes of cancer seem to be less environmental, more genetic,” said Salima Ikram, member of the research team and chair of the Egyptology department at AUC. “Living conditions in ancient times were very different. There were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors.”

Ikram added, “Cancer is such a hot topic these days. Experts are constantly trying to probe in hopes of answering one question: When and how did the ailment really evolve?”

M1’s case is the oldest proven case of cancer in ancient Egypt and the second oldest in the world. In 2007, a study published by Schultz et al. in the International Journal of Cancer reported paleopathological evidence of prostate cancer in a Scythian king in Russia. Experts said that the clinical characteristics of this king, who was in his fifth decade of age, bore resemblance to those exhibited by modern-day patients. Similar to M1, cancerous lesions were also identified through microscopic observation.

Earlier archaeological findings suggest that ancient Egyptians were not oblivious to the existence of malignant tumors. Early reports of carcinoma were documented in 1500 B.C., when the Edwin Smith Papyrus detailed an initial case of breast cancer in a female. The manuscript spoke of unsuccessful attempts to surgically excise eight tumors through cauterization.

The human body replenishes itself through the production of new cells that replace old ones. This is accomplished through cell division – a process by which the body duplicates genetic material. Aberrations in this process lead to cell mutations, which may cause cancer if they occur in a critical part of the gene and persist over time. As a consequence, cancer is more frequently observed in older people.

“We’re likely seeing more cancer-led deaths today simply because people are living longer,” explained Ikram. “Life expectancy in ancient Egyptian societies ranged from 30 to 40 years, meaning that those afflicted with the disease were probably dying from reasons other than its progression.”

But why are these findings only recently reported when antiquities have been accessible to investigators for many years? The answer is simple: the advent of technology. M1’s cancer was found with the aid of highly sophisticated multi-detector computerized tomography scanners, which make the detection of the smallest tumors quickly possible. The use of these advanced diagnostic tools is not only helpful in uncovering paleopathological evidence, but can provide a wealth of information on attributes such as age of death, lifestyle and even body composition.

In Carl Sagan’s own words, the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. “The discovery is an interesting note in the history of the disease and that of ancient Egypt,” said Ikram. “Findings such as these bring us one step closer to finding the cause of cancer, and, ultimately, the cure to a disease that has besieged mankind for so long.”

Source: American University of Cairo

The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study

By Cristiano Vernesi et al.

American Journal of Human Genetics, Vol.74:4 (2004)

Abstract: The origins of the Etruscans, a non-Indo-European population of preclassical Italy, are unclear. There is broad agreement that their culture developed locally, but the Etruscans’ evolutionary and migrational relationships are largely unknown. In this study, we determined mitochondrial DNA sequences in multiple clones derived from bone samples of 80 Etruscans who lived between the 7th and the 3rd centuries b.c. In the first phase of the study, we eliminated all specimens for which any of nine tests for validation of ancient DNA data raised the suspicion that either degradation or contamination by modern DNA might have occurred. On the basis of data from the remaining 30 individuals, the Etruscans appeared as genetically variable as modern populations. No significant heterogeneity emerged among archaeological sites or time periods, suggesting that different Etruscan communities shared not only a culture but also a mitochondrial gene pool. Genetic distances and sequence comparisons show closer evolutionary relationships with the eastern Mediterranean shores for the Etruscans than for modern Italian populations. All mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscans appear typically European or West Asian, but only a few haplotypes were found to have an exact match in a modern mitochondrial database, raising new questions about the Etruscans’ fate after their assimilation into the Roman state.

Click here to read this article from PubMed Central

Although many of the more than 4,000 years old cuneiform texts contain records of deliveries of emmer, barley and malt to breweries, as well as documentation of the activities, there is hardly any information on the details of the production processes, and no recipes to follow. According to Damerow, the administrative texts were most likely written for an audience that was already familiar with the details of brewing. They were not intended for informing the modern-day reader about the processes.

Moreover, the methods used for recording this information differ between locations and time periods. Also, the records and calculations are not based on any consistent number system. Instead, the Sumerian bureaucrats used different number systems depending on the nature of the objects to be counted or measured to count or measure.

This has cast doubt on the popular theory that Mesopotamian brewers used to crumble flat bread made from barley or emmer into their mash. The so-called “bappir” (Sumerian for “beer bread”) is never counted as bread in the administrative texts, but in measuring units, like coarsely ground barley. Damerow also points out that the high degree of standardisation, which meant that the quantities of raw materials allocated to the brewers by the central administration remained exactly the same over long periods, sometimes even decades, makes it difficult to base any recipes on them.

According to Damerow, even the “Hymn of Ninkasi”, one of the most significant sources on the ancient art of brewing, does not provide any reliable information about the constituents and steps of the brewing process. This lyric text from the Old Babylonian period around 1800 B.C. is a mythological poem or song that glorifies the brewing of beer. Despite the elaborate versification, Damerow states that the procedure of brewing is not conclusively described. It merely offers an incomplete record of the individual steps. For instance, there is no clue as to how the germination of the grain was interrupted at the right time. It can only be speculated that the barley was layered and that the germination was stopped by heating and drying the grain as soon as the root embryo had the right size.

Furthermore, the content of the hymn does not quite fit the results of the Tall Bazi Experiment. This was a brewing experiment carried out by archaeologists from the Ludwig Maximilian Universität in Munich together with brewing experts from the Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan at the Technische Universität München, with the intention of reconstructing the ancient brewing processes. Using cold mashing, the archaeologists managed to produce a brew of barley and emmer and adjust the alcohol level by changing the percentage of water; however, in Damerow’s opinion, this result must also be treated with scepticism. Nothing suggests that a production process that worked under the special conditions of Tall Bazi must have worked in the same way at other places in Mesopotamia, since the local conditions varied greatly. In fact, the experiment only demonstrates how modern methods can be used to produce a beer under the same conditions that were prevalent in Tall Bazi.

These uncertainties lead to a question, which the author considers “much more fundamental”: to which extent is it at all possible to compare ancient products with modern ones? “Given our limited knowledge about the Sumerian brewing processes, we cannot say for sure whether their end product even contained alcohol”, writes Damerow. There is no way of ascertaining whether the brew was not more similar to the bread drink kvass from Eastern Europe than to German Pilsner, Altbier or wheat beer.

Nevertheless, Damerow considers the approach of the scientists in the Tall Bazi Experiment to be a good way of finding the answers to questions about the early history of the art of brewing. “Such interdisciplinary research efforts might well lead to better interpretations of the ‘Hymn of Ninkasi’ than those currently accepted among specialists working on cuneiform literature”, says Damerow.

Peter Damerow’s article, “Sumerian Beer: The Origins of Brewing Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia,” appears in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal.

Source: Max Planck Institute

By Claudine Lana Earley

PhD Dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, 2009

Abstract: Roman democracy is in fashion. In particular, the publication of Fergus Millar’s The Crowd in the Late Republic (1998) has stimulated debate on the democratic elements in Roman government during this period.

In this thesis I examine the nature of popular participation in the late Roman Republic. I focus on the decision-making power of the populus Romanus and popular pressure to effect reform in the favour of citizens outside the senatorial and equestrian orders. My findings are based on analysis of ancient literary and epigraphic sources, along with a critique of modern research on the topic.

The first chapter introduces the subject with a survey of current scholarly opinion and discussion of key concepts and terms. Chapter Two investigates how power was shared between senatus populusque Romanus and the distribution of power in the assemblies, concluding that participation was widespread as a result of the changing circumstances in the late Republic. As farmers and veterans moved to Rome, and slaves were freed and granted citizenship and the right to vote, the balance was tipped in the favour of the non-elite voter. Each class of the populus Romanus could participate in Roman politics, and certainly members of each did.

Having concluded my analysis of the formal avenues of participation, I move onto the informal. Chapter Three is the first of three chapters of case studies focusing on demonstrations and collective action which form the heart of this work. The first set of studies cover secession, mutiny and refusal of the draft. Chapter Four continues with studies of popular pressure to gain reforms to improve the food supply, restore tribunician power, obtain relief from crippling debt and land shortage. The final chapter of analysis, Chapter Five, investigates collective action at contiones, legislative assemblies, trials, ludi et gladiatores, triumphs, funerals, and elections.

The findings of these three chapters bring me to the conclusion that Rome was a democracy, if of a particular type. The nature of popular political participation in the late Republic resembled that of an emerging democracy with the non-elite gaining an increasing role in the decision-making process, albeit without constitutional definition. The citizens’ right to participate in the formal assemblies was augmented by their ability to take part in less formal ways also. These informal methods ranged from popular involvement in contiones through to the application of pressure on senators through the threat of secession and mutiny. Only the rise of the principate, with formalised roles for the various sectors in society under one leader, brought these developments to an end.

Click here to read this article from the Victoria University of Wellington

By A. Erdem and Y. Erdem

Underground Space Use: Analysis of the Past and Lessons for the Future, eds. Erdem and Solak (London, 2005)

Abstract: Globalization enabled people to learn about the world in which they live in than ever before in the past. Today’s global culture is determined by a rapidly growing communication network and advancing technologies. As a consequence, sustainability of local natural environments and cultural heritages becomes a global issue, while local sites become learning grounds for global communities. As one of the best example of man’s symbiotic relationship with nature Cappadocia, located in Central Anatolia, offers many possibilities and lessons for underground habitation. This paper aims to discuss the ancient settlement of Cappadocia unique for its creative subterranean space use. The focal points of discussion are the physical geography and dominating forms of underground space use.

Click here to read this article from the Chinese Taipei Tunnelling Association

The Madness of the Emperor Caligula

By A. T. Sandison

Medical History, Vol.2:3 (1958)

Introduction: Throughout the centuries the name of Caligula has been synonymous with madness and infamy, sadism and perversion. It has been said that Marshal Gilles de Rais, perhaps the most notorious sadist of all time, modelled his behaviour. on that of the evil Caesars described by Suetonius, among whom is numbered Caligula. Of recent years, however, Caligula has acquired his apologists, e.g. Willrich; so also, with more reason, has the Emperor Tiberius, whose reputation has been largely rehabilitated by modern scholarship. Our knowledge of the life of Caligula depends largely on Suetonius, whose work De vita Caesarum was not published, until some eighty years after the death of Caligula in A.D. 41. Unfortunately that part of Tacitus’s Annals which treated of the reign. of Caligula has been lost. Other ancient sources are Dio Cassius, whose History of Rome was written in the early third century and, to a lesser extent, Josephus, whose Anhtitates Judaicac was published in A.D. 93, and Philo Judaeus, whose pamphlet Legatio ad Gaium and In Flaccum may be considered as contemporary writings. It seems probable that all these ancient sour¢es are to some extent prejudiced and highly coloured. Suetonius’s Gaius Caligula in De vita Caesarum is full of scabrous and sometimes entertaining stories, on some of which little reliability can be plated.

Click here to read this article from PubMed

By Jon M. Erlandson, Madonna L. Moss and Matthew Des Lauriers

Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 27 (2008)

Abstract: A variety of evidence suggests that the Americas may have been colonized, at least in part, by maritime peoples moving around the North Pacific Rim near the end of the Pleistocene. Understanding the geography of late glacial and early postglacial landscapes and the antiquity of human societies along the Pacific Coast continues to be a challenge, however, due to geological dynamics associated with glaciation, tectonism, submergence of coastal lowland landscapes by rising postglacial seas, and coastal erosion. Nonetheless, archaeological research has pushed back the antiquity of human settlement along the Pacific Coast of North America to the terminal Pleistocene or early Holocene, providing important new data on the nature of the earliest coastal peoples in the Pacific Northwest, Alta California, and Baja California. In this paper, we summarize what is known about the earliest peoples of the Pacific Coast of North America and evaluate the current viability of the coastal migration theory via a Pacific Rim route. Archaeological evidence now shows that Palaeocoastal peoples occupied each major region of the Pacific Coast by at least 13,000–11,500 calendar years ago, essentially contemporaneous with Clovis and Folsom peoples of the interior. Although it is too early to conclude that the initial human colonization of the Americas took place via a migration by maritime or coastal peoples, it seems increasingly likely that such a migration played a role in the early peopling of the Americas.

Click here to read this article from Oregon State University

Is Sexuality Sacred? A Biblical Connection

By Renata Alexandre

Student World, Vol.64 (2004)

Abstract: The Christian Church has been in an uneasy relationship with sexuality nearly since her inception. In such a context, affirming sexuality is extremely difficult. The Biblical record does not appear to affirm human sexuality either. Yet, there is some evidence to affirm human sexuality in the Biblical text if we examine the ancient Hebrew way of knowing, which is deeply psychological and geared toward community.

Introduction: The ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ is always moving forward. It is a process in which three movements can be perceived: differentiation, recognition, and community. First, the ancient Hebrew mind, to understand a given problem, must sense what information is discrepant. The individual wishes to hear and see personally the discrepant information. Once differences have been determined, similarities are seen, and may outnumber the differences between individuals. Finally, in recognizing similarities, the Hebrew mind invites the other person into community, for within that other individual the work of God is detected. The Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ is a holistic, personal movement in which all the senses are used.

Using this paradigm for ‘knowing’, the Genesis creation story can be interpreted in a way that embraces sexuality. The Hebrew understanding of how humans relate with each other gives us clues to what Hebrew Biblical writers may have actually meant when they state that Adam ‘knew’ Eve, or that Abraham ‘knew’ Sarah. Their ‘knowing’ involved far more than sexual intercourse and an ensuing conception of a child. Indeed, the ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ was deeply relational and took a great deal of personal interaction to develop.

Click here to read this article from Koed.hu

The Dedicatory Presentation in Late Antiquity: The Example of Ausonius

By Hagith Savin

Illinois Classical Studies, Vol.17:1 (1992)

Introduction: In a well-known analysis of the function of dedicatory pieces in Martial and Statius (whose title is here deliberately echoed), Peter White showed that the Roman concept of dedication was flexible in the extreme and well suited to a variety of purposes. Some of his conclusions are borne out by the work of the fourth-century poet Ausonius, who was greatly influenced by these two predecessors. Indeed, an examination of Ausonius’ poems offers an ideal point of departure for an exploration of the topic of the dedicatory presentation in the literature of late antiquity. For example, one of the questions raised addresses the nature of the relationship between the dedication and the text to which it was attached: What can be deduced from the inclusion or omission of a dedicatory preface concerning the poet’s working methods, his intended audience(s), the circulation and publication of his works? What sort of information is provided by the dedication about the chronological stages of the composition? Were dedications intended to function as proper prefaces as well as dedicatory addresses? Where multiple dedications were used, how do they relate to one another?

Click here to read this article from Illinois Classical Studies