CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
February 2015
CAI BRANCH NEWS CAI CORK The Cork branch activities started in October, the season of mellow fruitfulness, with ‘The Roman Empire: a model for Gerald of Wales on the Medieval English conquest of Ireland’. Dr Diarmuid Scully, a lecturer in the department of medieval History in UCC, is both an excellent speaker and a great friend to the Cork branch. Both Gerald of Wales and Tacitus were Diarmuid’s primary sources and one would not want to be sensitive in the Middle Ages, as the common term for the Irish a la both of these characters was ‘Barbarian’. However, the British people are descended from the Britains who came from Troy!! Even then, it was all about location, location. The lecture was quite varied and we learned that the Romans surpassed Alexander the Great’s escapades because they managed to cross Ocean. We also found out that Pope Adrian IV granted Ireland to Henry II under the Papal decree Landobiliter, no 13 and this led to an interesting development: the lawless Barbarian versus the Christians. However, Virgil in Aeneid VI summed it all up – the Romans, he said, have to lead all nations! One wonders about the new political party to be formed to ‘ReBoot Ireland’, if there will be claims of Roman or Trojan ancestry! November saw us entertain Tony O’Sullivan of the Limerick Branch. Tony took us on a journey with ‘Travels in Roman Istria from the Golden Fleece to the Amber Road and beyond’. At the time of writing (January 2015), travels in Roman Istria sound very appealing, as the rain pounds down and the wind howls around Cork City! The main literary sources for the lecture were Strabo, Livy, Pliny the Elder, Martial and Cassiodorus. At its peak, Istria was a highly developed Roman area, quite a small area about the size of County Limerick – Tony’s words, not mine! Despite its size, it was an area of vast 10
importance. Cassiodorus called it the granary of Ravenna and Julius Caesar made Pula a regional capital. However, its fame was short lived. It sided with Brutus and Cassius after the death of Caesar and the Triumvirate of Anthony, Lepidus and Octavius destroyed it. The area was rebuilt by Octavius/Augustus and renamed Pola Pietas Julia. As always, the exploration of lesser known areas of the Roman Empire opens a window to discovery and future holiday prospects. The first of December saw another Limerick branch member make a foray into Cork. This time we were pleased to welcome the Secretary of the Classical Association of Ireland, Patrick Ryan, on: ‘“erant qui metu mortis mortem precarentur”. The collection from Pompeii and Herculaneum in the National Archaeology museum of Naples’. This lecture had its origins in a trip to Naples and the museum which was founded by Charles of Bourbon, King of Naples and Sicily (17341759). Archaeological excavations began in Herculaneum in 1738 and one of the most important sites to be discovered was the Villa of the Papyri. In 1806, the French invaded Herculaneum and took away the majority of the 1800 scrolls discovered. To date, some 580 have been opened and read.
WATCH footage of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1944 and a video illustrating a new technique for reading Herculaneum’s carbonised scrolls without opening them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlWJ68DJGM0