Get the right idea: Ben Hur!

Until this moment, I have posted three messages on circuses. Those of Caesarea, Tarraco and Aphrodisias, and will add more in the future. To learn more about chariot racing? Watch Ben Hur, 1959! When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. A movie by William Wyler, with our rifle friend Charlton Heston and Jack Hawkins (remember the movie: 'Poppies are also flowers',... ?). Winning 10 (ten [sic!]) Oscars! Enjoy!



Reacties

Een reactie posten

Populaire posts van deze blog

Polydus, champion charioteer for the reds

Afbeelding
Last week, I visited Landesmuseum Trier for the third time, which probably sounds boring but its collection is of great quality. The museum was renovated a few years ago, so a good excuse to visit it again. In my previous blog post I already wrote that the circus of Colonia Augusta Treverorum dates back to the earliest period of the cities history. The race track may have been created immediately after the city was founded. Quite some interesting finds, referring to the circus are in Landesmuseum Trier on display, including this mosaic of Polydus, a popular charioteer for the red faction (factio russata), and his lead horse Compressor. He is taking a victory lap. My picture is the centerpiece of a mosaic floor from a villa in front of the Imperial Baths in Trier. The representations on Roman mosaics of the victorious charioteer of the circus may be compared with similar representations in other forms of Roman art, both major and minor. Certa...
Meer lezen

Subterranean theater of Herculaneum

Afbeelding
I visited Herculaneum twice, and both times my camera mall functioned. Or, I only made a very limited amount of pictures because of whatever. Which is a pitty, while the remains of the city are of great splendor and in many aspects more intense than Pompei. At the internet I found this chalk model of the theater of Herculaneum, which was made in 1808. In 1711, workers digging a well in a small town of Resina, found three mostly intact marble statues of draped women. Heralding the discovery of ancient Herculaneum, the sculptures are known today as the Large and Small Herculaneum Women. But that is not the topic of this entry. When they were discovered, the Herculaneum Women were hoisted through a well shaft that led down to the remains of a Roman theater buried 75 feed below the street level of modern Ercolano. The theater of Herculaneum was the first Roman theater found largely intact. Its grand arcades and polychrome wall paintings influenced a new generation - I learned - of a...
Meer lezen

Castra Vetera

Afbeelding
Last month the third volume of the comic of 'Les Aigles de Rome' or 'Eagles of Rome' by Enrico Marini was published in the Netherlands. Also this volume is great! It's about the Cheruscian Arminius and his Roman 'brother' Marcus Valerius Falco, both raised in the same Roman family and both suffering the same harsh Roman education. Arminius and Marcus meet after years of separation in Germania during the days of Varus, but times have changed. I really like the great drawings, the story is rough and full of violence and sex. For someone raised with the Smurfs, a revelation! Watch the trailer about the making of the series. Around 15 BC the Roman camp Castra Vetera was created on the Fürstenberg near today's locality Birten in Germany. It was intended as a base for campaigns into Germania and until its destruction during the Revolt of the Hatavi in 70 AD, by Arminius, it was occupied by 8,000 to 10,000 legionaries, and the main base of the Classis germanic...
Meer lezen