Late Antique Opus Sectile

Not much survives from the decoration of the so-called Basilica of Junius Bassus on the Esquiline, but there are four panels located in two different museums in Rome: the Museo Nazionale Romano located in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and the Palazzo dei Conservatori in the Capitoline Museums.




The Electa guide book for Palazzo Massimo gives us the following helpful information:

Two panels from the Basilica of Junius Bassus, consul in AD 331, show the extraordinary luxury that characterised the private residences of the artistocratic urban class of the 4th century AD. One panel represents the myth of Hylas abducted by the Nymphs and the other shows the beginning of a race at the circus. Along with two other panels which are now part of the collections at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, this panel belongs to the wall-decoration of a large hall which was a private baslica in a luxurious structure near the Esquiline. The existence of an inscription allows us to identify the hall as the property of the consul Junius Bassus, father of the Roman prefect of the same name. The latter, a Christian, died in AD 359.

After the hall was discovered in the 15th century it was destroyed, but all of the panels in opus sectile were seen and drawn by the well-known Renaissance artist Giuliano da Sangallo, who described them as a 'cosa meravigliosa' (thing of wonder).

Another Link

From Rogueclassicism I have gotten a link to a page of online dictionaries and language and paleography resources, which includes a Medieval Latin dictionary. Thanks to the Rogue for posting it. Enjoy!

Word of the Day for Dennis

I think Dennis should appreciate Merriam-Webster's 'Word of the Day' for 18 April, even though it doesn't actually mention Nicander:

theriac \THEER-ee-ak\ noun

1 : a mixture of many drugs and honey formerly held to be an antidote to poison
*2 : cure-all

Example sentence:
Garlic has been called the poor man's theriac.

Did you know?
There really is no such thing as a single remedy for all that ails us. But that hasn't kept English speakers from creating, not just a single word, but several words, that mean "cure-all" — "catholicon," "elixir," "nostrum," "panacea," and today's word, "theriac." When we first used "theriac," it meant "an antidote for poison" — for any and all poisons, that is. That's how our Roman and Greek forebears used their "theriaca" and "thēriakē," which derive ultimately from the Greek word for "wild animal." The first theriac was supposedly created by the first-century Greek physician Andromachus, whose concoction consisted of some 70 drugs pulverized with honey. Medieval physicians created even more elaborate theriacs to dose a plague-dreading populace, for whom the possibility of a cure-all didn't seem too wild a notion at all.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

More Good Searches

Here is, in my opinion, the top recent search that brought someone to the Campus:

what's wrong with guys

Another interesting one is:

argosy grad school is bad

Two runners-up are:

"anyone owns a song"

And a personal favorite of mine:

"aaron kook"

And speaking of the Magister, where has he been lately, anyway?

Additionally, Dennis' post on 'bad movie latin' continues to attract a lot of hits.