Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8186267, member: 128351&quot;]I don&#039;t know if the galley-type may be considered part of Hadrian&#039;s travel-series.</p><p>Of course the emperor did travel by sea, at least when crossing straights like the Channel, the Bosphorus, etc. But these galley reverses must be taken in a more general way. Sailing was extremely dangerous at this time, even on the imperial galley, and it is likely that every time the emperor had to entrust his life (and the whole empire&#039;s government) to a ship, some sort of official prayers or rites did take place.</p><p>The extreme risk that sailing represented was a commonplace. Diogenes Laertius writes that the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis, when aboard a ship, asked what was the hull&#039;s thickness. A sailor replied: &quot;Four fingers&quot;. Anacharsis said :&quot;Thus we are just four fingers from death&quot;. Another quote: somebody asked Anacharsis: Who are more numerous, the living or the dead? he replied :&quot;In what category do you put those who navigate?&quot; It is the origin of the apocryphal quote often attributed to Plato or Aristotle : &quot;There are three kinds of people, the living, the dead and those who are at sea&quot;. For the ancients, people travelling by sea were the equivalent or our modern Schroedinger&#039;s cat: you couldn&#039;t tell if they were alive or dead until the ship had returned safely.</p><p>To travel by sea you needed two things: good ship and good luck, in Latin <i>Felicitas</i>. This is probably why the image of a galley appears as the graphic transcription of <i>Felicitas</i>. Hadrian&#039;s galley coins all have the legend FELICITATI AVGVSTI (more or less abbreviated) : &quot;to the Good Luck of the Emperor&quot;. On later emperors&#039; coins we find this association galley / felicitas: on Marcus Aurelius&#039; asses dated tr.p. XXXI (176/7) with the legend FELICITATI AVG; on Elagabalus&#039; denarii minted in Antioch with the legend FELICITAS TEMP(orum); even on mid-4th c. <i>Fel. Temp. Reparatio</i> series, one of the reverse types shows the emperor standing on the deck of a galley.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in