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Town criers - Marcus Mummius - 09-30-2009
Salvete,
Does anyone know if the romans had something like town criers to spread news?
Is anything known about them? How would they have been dressed?
A city here in Belgium would like to dress their folkloristic town crier in a Roman outfit to illustrate the rich roman past of their city. They want something authentic.
Any answers and suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Valete,
Jef
Re: Town criers - Salvianus - 10-13-2009
I believe a praeco was a civilian announcer of that type, Bill Thayer's details are at:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... cones.html
They sound lowly at best, so I would plead with them to avoid a completely innapropriate toga and recommend for men a loose unbelted T-shaped tunic to well below the knee, such as tradespeople are shown wearing, with flat leather shoes and perhaps wax tablets rather than scrolls.
Used by Jerome in 1 Kings:
{22:36} et præco insonuit in universo exercitu antequam sol occumberet dicens unusquisque revertatur in civitatem et in terram suam
{22:36} And a herald proclaimed throughout the entire army, before the setting of the sun, saying: “Let each one return to his own city, and to his own land.”
and in 2 Peter{2:5} :
iustitiæ præconem custodivit
Noah, the herald of justice
In the Acts, he seems to favour 'annunciator' and derivatives.
Hope that helps,
Ste
Re: Town criers - Marcus Mummius - 10-15-2009
Thanks Ste, helps a lot!
Re: Town criers - Epictetus - 10-16-2009
Does anyone know if the Acta Diurna were ever read out loud, or were they just displayed to be read by passerbys?
Re: Town criers - D B Campbell - 10-16-2009
Quote:Does anyone know if the Acta Diurna were ever read out loud, or were they just displayed to be read by passerbys?I know that the TV drama Rome had a "town crier" figure, but I get the impression that the acta diurna were simply posted up so that, if you were interested (and literate), you could make your own copy.
Re: Town criers - Justin of the New Yorkii - 10-16-2009
If some noteworthy news item happened like a battle or a public official's death, they would write it down and nail it to a tree where three roads intersected, which is where we get the English "Trivia."