Julia Domna and Her Fantastic Wig

I went to London to a lunchtime recital by the pianist Yoon Seok Shin at the Effra Road Chapel in Brixton, and then to the British Museum because I had a free ticket for a preview of "Legion: life in the Roman Army".

I'm not very interested in army life really, but there was some thought-provoking commentary about the role of social status in a person's place in the army, and the experience of justice (or lack of) for soldiers and occupied people.

I also was glad to see in person a fragment of a preserved, hand-written tablet from the Roman camp Vindolanda in Northumbria. The writer uses the derogatory term "Brittunculi" ("wretched little Britons") when describing the poorly equipped native fighters, and it's interesting to get a sense of an individual's attitude to an enemy (or potential auxiliary recruit) from such a long time ago. That is, especially when the frament itself is housed in an immense, neo-classical museum in the former province of Britannia.

The exhibition gave had a key statistic that at its height the Roman empire encompassed 60 million people, maintained by an army of 300,000. So however boring their incessant road building and sandal-wearing-out might be, they played an important historical role.

I also saw this captivating marble bust of Julia Domna, the wife of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. Her distinctive hairstyle is believed to be a wig, styled to evoke the neck-protecting helmet worn by soldiers, as she accompanied her husband on military campaigns.

Septimius Severus's rule was particularly militaristic, even by Roman standards. He was a governor in the Roman army, born in Libya, and pronounced emperor by his own troops. He marched on Rome without facing resistance after the death of the former emperor, Commodus, and subsequent assassination of his successor, Publius Helvius Pertinax. Naturally, Septimius Severus had Pertinax's usurper, Didius Julianus, executed, and eventually removed two more rivals, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus.

Septimius died in Eboracum, aka. York, so his life, as well as being a guidebook to expert despotism, is a good example of the interconnection of peoples in the days of the Roman Empire. Julia Domna herself, the "mother of the army camps", and "mother of the Senate and the fatherland" while her emperor son was away, was Syrian. She was the daughter of Julius Bassanius, the high priest of the temple of Elagabalus in modern-day Homs.

And... in the evening I watched Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead 2", mostly because our neighbours were having an Sunday evening rave, so we needed something audible over that!