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The Peacock, in all its splendour and glory.
The peacock has a long history of being worshipped as a pagan deity or used as a symbol by royalty and the wealthy. Its use in the art of medieval Europe was also largely symbolic and generally...
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They raised him on their shields in a moment of great happiness and triumph!
The astounding success of Julian’s rise in five short years, from a bookworm to Caesar, was genuinely celebrated by his army and citizens. He had excelled, against all expectations placed upon him,...
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The Last Pagan Emperor
Detail of a Sassanian relief showing the prostrate figure of Emperor Julian. Julian is such an interesting character that it is impossible to ignore him, even though some tend to treat him as a blip...
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Do not forsake us Emperor Jovian: The shameful peace of the year 363 AD.
Despite some small variation, this map of the Roman–Sassanid frontier represents the peace treaty that was arranged between Jovian and Sharpur II in 363. The Roman Empire is on the left and the...
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The Maccabees, a long-lost tomb and that curious Byzantine mosaic cross that...
#489422308 / gettyimages.com Over the past few days I have been reading reports about what could quite possibly be the rediscovery of the long-lost tomb of the Maccabees. The famed Maccabees were...
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A rare Byzantine Egyptian streetscape on show in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
#490497334 / gettyimages.com A very rare Egyptian streetscape mosaic in the Kiryat Gat Industrial Park, in Israel, will be open to the public for viewing tomorrow on October 1st. Two years ago the...
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Brothers in power, migration and pending disaster!
This is the reverse of a solidus minted by Valens, which depicts Valens and his older brother Valentinian, seated on the throne and holding a globe between them, a symbol of power. Behind them stands...
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Valentinian I: The last of the triumphant Roman emperors in the west.
Valentinian is sometimes described as a brooding and violent man. Ammianus Marcellinus, in particular, does not mince his words describing Valentinian’s famous anger, ‘His very voice and expression,...
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Treasure and mystery in Byzantine Cappadocia.
Before the Romans, other ancient civilisations, notably the Achaemenid Empire, once inhabited the mountainous region of central Anatolia called Cappadocia. In the Christian era, as early as the 4th...
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The 1,700 year old Roman and Byzantine-era mosaics of Lod.
#497365276 / gettyimages.com The construction and modernization of Israeli infrastructure across fields, suburban blocks, highways and streets has seen an unprecedented wave of ancient structures and...
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Celebrating St. Nicholas: The story of the Three Condemned Innocents.
The reign of Constantine The Great was not always stable. Borders had to be protected, laws enforced and if unrest broke out or even a sniff of conspiracy surfaced, Constantine also dealt with these...
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Saint Nicholas
St. Nicholas deserves his place amongst humanities most kindest, gentlest, generous and loving individuals to have walked this earth. It is astonishing to think that from humble beginnings, he was a...
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The relics of St. Nicholas: From Myra to Bari and across Europe.
The remains of St. Nicholas, who is believed to be the inspiration behind our modern-day Santa Claus are buried in a number of holy places across Europe from Bari to Venice and possibly Kilkenny, in...
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The Nativity of Jesus in Byzantine art.
There is no doubt that the Christ Pantocrator, Marian art and the passion of Christ are some of the most widely used religious art forms in Orthodox Christianity. However, the importance of the...
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A conversation with Byzantine luminary Averil Cameron.
Averil Cameron is one of the leading English-speaking scholars of late antiquity and Byzantium. She has made Byzantium, in particular, interesting and relevant to a generation of academics, students...
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Emperor Valens: A reign under siege!
The marble bust of this Roman Emperor is believed to be Valens or Honorius. Valens was beset by serious problems from the moment he was first appointed by his older brother Valentinian, to rule over...
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The Aqueduct of Valens
In modern Istanbul, standing impressively over the traffic on the busy Atatürk Bulvarı is the Aqueduct of Valens. (Today it is known better as the Bozdogan Kemeri.) It is a two-story structure...
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Evagrius Ponticus and the Eight Logismoi.
It is difficult for us to appreciate the intricacies of the Byzantine state, without sometimes looking at the simple lives of people, who shared in its 1000-year history. Over 1,600 years ago, our...
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Masterclass in Byzantine Mosaics (Part 1)
Who would have thought that a tiny small square piece of stone, glass or pottery called tesserae would have such an important impact on culture and art history? As far back as the fourth millennium,...
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Masterclass in Byzantine Mosaics (Part 2)
A good number of Byzantine craftsmen, painters and artists are unknown or anonymous. Yet, they have left us with a rich legacy of decorative secular and religious art throughout the eastern Roman...
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