Daily Life in Ancient Rome - Jerome Carcopino

While the Romans may have done a bit of remodeling, I don't think they built the temple at Baalbek.

Some interesting items about Baalbek from an as yet unpublished MS of mine:



Here is the version of the event from Pseudo-Zachariah which, as you will see, has been edited:



The version from Michael the Syrian:



And a second entry on the topic from Michael the Syrian:


Obviously, a lot of copying was going on. Question is, what was the original text and when was it written?

Aside from the fascinating idea that Baalbek was thought by the peoples of that time to be the Temple of Solomon – or at least A temple built by Solomon - the reference to the three large stones is interesting. As it happens, the Western retaining wall has a course of monoliths containing the famous trilithon: a row of three stones, each over 19 meters long, 4.3 meters high, and 3.6 meters across. They weigh about 800 tons each. About a mile from the site there are two unused stones in a quarry weighing 1000 and 1200 tons respectively.

But most of all, notice the description of the means by which the temple was destroyed: “fire from heaven” and “lightning from heaven”. That was either the most gargantuan lightning bolt in history or it was actually an overhead comet explosion. The fact that the author says “fire/lightning from heaven” as opposed to ordinary lightning from a cloud, suggests that it was something quite out of the ordinary and this was the best way it could be described. Of course, something may have been lost in the translation.


[1] F. J. Hamilton, E.W. Brooks, trans. Eds., The Syriac chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene, Methuen, 1899, facsimile copy, Bibliolife Books. P. 204.

The Zuqnin Chronicle is a medieval chronicle written in Classical Syriac language, encompassing the events from Creation to c. 775 CE. It was most probably produced in the Zuqnin Monastery near Amida (the modern Turkish city of Diyarbakır) on the upper Tigris. The work is preserved in a single handwritten manuscript (Cod. Vat. 162), now in the Vatican (shelf mark Vatican Syriac 162). The fourth part of the chronicle provides a detailed account of life of Christian communities in the Middle East, including regions of Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt, during and after the Muslim conquest.

I agree. The Baalbek temple was not built by the Romans. My reference to the temple as Roman, sprang to the fact, that 1) It is widely known as The roman temple of Baalbek, 2) Since we don't surely know who build the temple, I can only go for the general idea when I refer to the temple. Baalbek, the sheer size and magnitude of Baalbek struck me when I looked at the building during my study. Of course, the official narrative is dismissive of the idea that Baalbek was pre-Roman, or even much older and my scanty knowledge of Roman architecture did not furnish me to argue on the matter with my lecturers, not if I wanted to graduate.

However, it is obvious that much much more do discover about Baalbek.

Brian Foerster

And

Megalithomania

Done some good work on the investigation of the Baalbek mystery in regards to the possible megalithic origin of the building.

I myself have not researched Baalbek, although I wish to, if I live long enough to pursue all the projects I want to accomplish. :-D
 
There is an interesting project - OmnesViae - a modern route planner based on the roads of the Roman Empire.


It is based on the Tabula Peutingeriana, the closest thing we have to a "road map” of the Roman Empire.

The Peutinger Map, a 13th-century parchment scroll, is a copy of a much older map, which is only two “possibles” away from the Steward of the Roads himself: It may date from the 4th or 5th century, and that version may be a copy of a map prepared for Augustus around year 1 AD.

So, what’s the farthest distance you could travel on Roman roads? From Blatobulgium to Volocesia must come pretty close.

Blatobulgium was a Roman fort in what is now Dumfriesshire, Scotland, at the northern terminus of Route 2 in the Antonine Itinerary (also known as Watling Street).

Volocesia, placed by OmnesViae near the Kuwaiti island of Bubiyan, is sometimes identified with a modern place called Abu Halafiya, on the banks of the Tigris in southern Iraq.

According to OmnesViae, the distance between both is 3,751 Roman miles (about 4,100 modern miles, or slightly more than 5600 km). That trip would take 251 days to complete.

 
Pretty interesting video (11:36 mins) about the recruitment and training of Roman legionnaires. They were some tough cookies!


Nice animation and informative narration on the construction of a Roman road (~2mins):

It makes sense that the majority of the Roman roads were built by legionnaires:

The bulk of the actual building was done by Roman soldiers. By doing this, the Romans could rely on the gained expertise of the soldiers. The authorities could also rely on the fact that the soldiers would do the best they could for Rome – by building excellent roads.

Further info about the Roman army (15:14 mins):

 
Baths of Diocletian, how it looked like.
The baths were begun in 298 BC by Emperor Maximian, appointed Augustus of the West by Diocletian, and opened in 306, with an extraordinary extension of almost fourteen hectares. Erected between the Viminale and the Quirinale, the Baths of Diocletian are the largest in Rome and in the Roman world.
That would have been 298 AD and not BC.
 
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