07-18-2011, 08:09 AM
Quote:Can you find the reference for the murderers being threatened with blasphemy charges?
This is new to me as well, Jim - I thought it was just a straight murder charge. Or was the blasphemy connected to parricide, perhaps, after killing the Pater Patriae?
Anyway, this is for a different topic, probably...
As for the Praetorian camp, it was indeed outside the pomerium, but not such a long way from the centre of Rome - you can walk the distance in half an hour, and that's even with the modern hectic traffic!
Perhaps the Praetorians were turned out in armour and ordered to perform a series of tableaux, so the sculptors could make sketches? That might explain how they got the details of the armour slightly wrong... An interesting scene to imagine... But then again, there's plenty of other detail on the column that appears to be right, not to mention individual shield designs etc... An irresolvable mystery... :wink:
Nathan Ross
