h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Matter of Constantine's Beard - A797394
Author: Amber. 20 to 30 million years old. Insect included. - U199662

I'd appreciate your comments on this entry. Thank you.

Hi Amber!

I like this! An inspired Entry!

Just a few typos such as 'Christianty' = 'Christianity' (in one of the links I think)

Good Entry!

Caper Plip

Very well written, with a fresh humour about it too. Let's have this in the guide.

Brilliant. Really like this.

Jimster

Yes, great stuff!

You appear to be implying that Antinus did not jump, he was pushed. Who were the main suspects?

Add one more voice to the chorus of approval!


Azara

It's hard to say exactly what happened. I personally favor the explanation that Antinous was killed by the Praetorian Guard because he had become a political embarassment. Others say that Antinous committed suicide, either because he thought his sacrifice in the Nile would appease the gods and end the drought, or because he thought his sacrifice could heal Hadrian of the disease that would eventually kill him. However it happened, Antinous was deified by Hadrian and I was surprised to learn that there are still some Antinous worshippers out there today (plus he has given his name to several gay nightclubs).

This is a very well written article.

Antinoopolis - is this a typo? It looks like it should be Antinopolis, but I don't know.

Regarding carving a new Emperor on an old monument - this practice was extremely common among the Egyptian Pharaohs (including the later dynasties who weren't Egyptians at all, I believe that one Dynasty was Roman). Could this be where the Roman Emperors picked up this habit, or was Constantine's 'appropriation' of Hadrian's arch a one-off? Probably not relevant, just an aside.

Gif

Love the entry; great writing on an interesting subject!

well, what more is there to say?

Alright then, go on...

One practical suggestion: I know (roughly) who Constantine was (a charitable fellow, from what i recall!) but it may not be the best idea to *assume* knowledge of his importance in the history of the Christian church from the outset.

One way to adapt your piece could be to slightly expand the intro so that it presents this info - perhaps simply taking some of your later 'grandaddy' para and transferring it to the intro.

Don't Panic! If you prefer to let the reader come to this info later in the piece, i can see that this can work too. I'm not issuing 'directives' here!

So, all the best with this and future writings
spiff

I'm not sure how common the practice of recarving heads was among Roman Emperors. As far as I know, it wasn't common (particularly if the head you're recarving was one of an Emperor who had been deified, like Hadrian). During the early decades of the Empire it was fairly common practice to put your all-too-realistic head on an idealized god-like body -- one particularly hideous statue of Claudius comes to mind. Later, the practice of damnatio memoriae let rulers completely strike people from the artistic record, like Caracalla did with his brother, Geta. But the recarving of heads? Unless someone else knows for certain, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it wasn't something that was generally done.

And Antinoopolis isn't a typo, it's just that Roman names don't turn into Greek words too well.

All of your points about not assuming people know about Constantine are good ones. I think I might write a separate piece on him, though. I'd hate for the beard issue to get bogged down in relevance.

Great entry!

"I'd hate for the beard issue to get bogged down in relevance."



Gif

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