Sceptre from Roman emperor exhibited

The Telegraph ^ | 2-27-07 | Malcolm Moore

[dbehsman]

The only Roman emperor's sceptre to have been found has gone on public display in Rome for the first time.

The sceptre, which is topped by a blue orb that represents the earth, was discovered at the end of last year and is believed to have been held by Emperor Maxentius, who ruled for six years until 312AD.

The Roman emperor's sceptre found at the Palatine hill

Maxentius, who was known for his vices and his incapacity, drowned in the Tiber while fighting forces loyal to his brother-in-law, Constantine, at the battle of the Milvian bridge. Archaeologists believe that Maxentius' supporters hid the sceptre during or after the battle to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

[dbehsman]

Interesting.

They have a photo of the sceptre in the article. I was a little surprised to see that the emperor's sceptre had a lot of iron work in it. You'd think they would have used gold or silver. Perhaps it had been gilded in it's day.

[CyberAnt]

It's too bad they couldn't have shown a picture of what it would have looked like during the Roman times.

[Mount Athos]

The sceptre, which is topped by a blue orb that represents the earth

Hm...

[FreedomCalls]

[FLOutdoorsman]

Good thing they knew the earth was round, a flat earth Sceptre would have looked weird.

[jim35]

Ok, I'll bite. Did the Romans know that the Earth was round, in 300 A.D.?

[atomic conspiracy]

They absolutely did. They also knew how big it was (though not what was on most of it) thanks to Eratosthenes of Cyrene.

[jim35]

Thank you, atomic conspiracy. Man, I just love F.R.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I tried to find an Atlas statue with the world on his shoulder, and found this Atlas with the stars!


http://www.physorg.com/news2711.html

Long-lost star catalog discovered on Roman statue

An ancient mystery may have been solved by Louisiana State University Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Bradley E. Schaefer.
Schaefer has discovered that the long-lost star catalog of Hipparchus, which dates back to 129 B.C., appears on a Roman statue called the Farnese Atlas. Hipparchus was one of the greatest astronomers of antiquity and his star catalog was the first in the world, as well as the most influential. The catalog was lost early in the Christian era, perhaps in the fire at the great library in Alexandria.
The Farnese Atlas is a Roman statue, dating to the second century, that depicts the Titan Atlas holding a sky globe on his shoulder. The statue, currently housed in Italy, includes relief figures on the globe depicting the ancient Greek constellations in fine detail. Schaefer has discovered that the constellation figures on the Farnese Atlas are an accurate rendition of Hipparchus' star catalog. According to Schaefer, the discovery will likely lead to the solution of several long-debated questions.

Indeed, Schaefer's discovery is already stirring interest among those in the field of astronomy.

[bkepley]

Ok, I'll bite. Did the Romans know that the Earth was round, in 300 A.D.?

Why not, they didn't have some religious nut cases insisting on a strict interpretation of misinterpreted text.

[stockpirate]

There is/was a lot of lost knowledge. They have found carvings in South America which are calenders that are accurate for about 100,000 years.

The bible says there is no new thing under the sun.

[Madam Theophilus]

They even knew the world was round during the period when Columbus set sail. What Columbus had to convince the Spanish court was his calculations concerning the distance of the earth's circumference and ironically it turned out that he was wrong. He thought it was smaller than the court geographers. Luckily, the unknown American continent stood in between Europe and his intended port in the Far East, or there is a good chance he would have died somewhere crossing the Pacific Ocean. The idea that Columbus had to convince people the earth wasn't flat was a story created by Washington Irving in his "biography" of Columbus and is not historic.

[neb52]

Actually if he was going for traditional than it might have been orginally Iron. Senators of the Republic wore Iron rings to show their status. I forgot the significance of that, but later on some would deviate from that and wear Gold rings.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“The sceptre, which is topped by a blue orb that represents the earth…”

The Flat Earth Society is deeply saddened.

[Red Badger]

Every ship's navigator and captain knew it was round..........only the un-eductaed were flat out ignorant........

[GreenLanternCorps]

This is a pretty good site with a list of all the Roman Emperors from Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) to Constantine XI Palaeologus (1449-1453):

http://www.roman-emperors.org/

[GreenLanternCorps]

Here is Maxentius' page:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/maxentiu.htm

[Larry Lucido]

I thought he was Scottish.

Oh, wait, it said Sceptre!

[Sensei Ern]

At the time, iron was extremely valuable. It's properties of being extremely strong, compared to the softer metal available at the time, it also represented the empire of Rome.

What is interesting is that several hundred years before, the prophecies in the Book of Daniel identified the Roman Empire as the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

[ELS]

Thanks for that link. Very interesting!