Hadrian's soldiers writing home
The hulking great highlight of the Hadrian exhibition opening this week at the British Museum is a mammoth head of the emperor. Excavated in Turkey last year, it has never been shown to the public before.
You can make out not only his beard - he was the first Roman emperor to sport this Hellenistic look - but also his creased earlobes, a curious genetic giveaway to the heart condition that killed him at the age of 62, in 138AD.
The real highlight, though, will be some rotten slivers of oak - each about the size of a postcard. These are the Vindolanda tablets, letters sent to and from Roman officers serving at Vindolanda, near modern Hexham, Northumberland from 90AD to 120AD - just before Hadrian built his wall.
We are brought up on stories of grand, imperial Rome - stuttering Claudius, Caligula planning to make his horse a consul in between orgies and Augustus turning Rome from brick to marble. But the Vindolanda tablets show what life was like for the rest of the Romans, those sent to garrisons in freezing, far-flung parts of the empire...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
You can make out not only his beard - he was the first Roman emperor to sport this Hellenistic look - but also his creased earlobes, a curious genetic giveaway to the heart condition that killed him at the age of 62, in 138AD.
The real highlight, though, will be some rotten slivers of oak - each about the size of a postcard. These are the Vindolanda tablets, letters sent to and from Roman officers serving at Vindolanda, near modern Hexham, Northumberland from 90AD to 120AD - just before Hadrian built his wall.
We are brought up on stories of grand, imperial Rome - stuttering Claudius, Caligula planning to make his horse a consul in between orgies and Augustus turning Rome from brick to marble. But the Vindolanda tablets show what life was like for the rest of the Romans, those sent to garrisons in freezing, far-flung parts of the empire...