• Aielman15@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Goddamit I never realized that the Golden Fleece myth was located that far. I always place greek/romans myths in a nebulous “some random ass island located somewhere in the Mediterranean”, but it makes sense that the greeks would locate some of their stories in the Black Sea, which was very near their homeland.

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Brits are “badass women” presumably for Celts like Boudica, but at the same time, Denmark/Scandiwegia is labeled as “blonde wigs”?

    I don’t know of any practices of using wigs in the first millenium Scandinavia?

    Oh no right now I get it.

    You’re basically saying the blonde hair for Roman wigs comes from Scandinavia.

    Yeah that’s probably true.

    I actually realised that midway writing this so I’m gonna leave the revelation there

  • Cenotaph
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    9 days ago

    Ah yes, everyone’s favourite poison addict, Mithridates

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 days ago

    Is there any info on how far into the Sahara the Romans conquered, exactly? I know there was the one exploratory expedition where they reached the other side. (Or was that Carthage?)

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      9 days ago

      Is there any info on how far into the Sahara the Romans conquered, exactly?

      Bit of a funny question, and depends on what you count as conquered. The Garamantians were subdued at one point by Septimius Severus, which is a good chunk inland.

      I know there was the one exploratory expedition where they reached the other side. (Or was that Carthage?)

      There’s actually an excellent wiki article on just that

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 days ago

        I mean, yes. I should probably specify I mean a regular tribute relation - to my definition, a one time gift to impress the goofy pale people doesn’t count, but it doesn’t have to be a proper colonia or to have actually lost a war, either. Although it’s an interesting question what the most southern colonia was - probably along the Nile, right? It doesn’t look like they founded anything outside of oases, but the status was given to existing settlements too.

        Yes, I actually think I read that one, and was thinking of Festus. I wouldn’t say most of these “reached the other side”.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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          8 days ago

          Near the Sahara, at least, none south of the Atlas Mountains it would seem, which makes sense. I’m actually not sure if there were any literal coloniae in Egypt due to its… unique provincial position as a personal holding of the Emperor. I know Aswan was major and pretty far south though.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            5 days ago

            I turned up that they did some serious construction in Farafra. Would that have been considered Libya, or Egypt?

            • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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              5 days ago

              Egypt, looks like! Roman Egypt roughly had the same borders as modern Egypt, with Cyrenaica being on the border with Libya, and modern-day Libya being, well, Libya, and Africa Proconsularis.