The Roman West and the Roman East

Many Aspects of Different Cultures can help to throw light on their differing identities—language, architecture, religion, and many other things, such as the ‘range of landscapes, ways of thought, racial groups, roof-tops and cheeses’. In fact, almost anything. A particular category is provided by the institutions people observe, a category which might embrace an enormous range of different things, from burial practices to legal systems, or from different calendars to different systems of weights and measures. The link between coins, weights, and measures was clear to the Greeks and Romans, and that coins could be regarded as an expression of some at least of the values characteristic of a particular society is evident from an anecdote reported by Pliny as taking place in the reign of Claudius. He relates how a Roman was forced by a storm to Sri Lanka (ancient Taprobane), and how he told the local king about Rome: A freedman of Annius Plocamus, who had brought the tax collection for the Red Sea from the Treasury, was sailing round Arabia. He was carried along by winds from the north past Carmania and, on the fifteenth day, made harbour at Hippuros in the island; and in consequence of the kind hospitality of the king he learned the local language thoroughly over a period of six months, and afterwards in reply to his questions described the Romans and Caesar. In what he heard the king got a remarkably good idea of their honesty, because among the captured money there were denarii which were of equal weight, even though their various types indicated that they were issued by several persons. I want to apply this approach to the Roman world, and use coins in a way that may throw light on some of the ways that Romans regarded themselves, having a special look at the differences between the western and eastern parts of the empire. I want to suggest that we can use this sort of approach to help explain the fundamental change that took place in the currency of the Iberian peninsula, Gaul, Italy, Sicily, and Africa in the first century AD—how people there stopped using locally made coins and started to use coins imported from Rome, coins which might otherwise have been regarded in some sense as almost ‘foreign’.

Wolf-Rayet Stars in the Old Days

This morning, as part of the welcoming ceremonies opening this conference, we were reminded that Indonesia consists of over 13,000 islands and that the coat of arms carries the phrase: “Unity in Diversity.” We might take the same theme for the study of Wolf-Rayet Stars. There has certainly been no shortage of diversity over the 120 years since their discovery and we all keep hoping for unity; perhaps IAU Symposium No. 143 will provide it! The conference was opened this morning with three strokes of the ceremonial gong to chase away all the bad spirits. So far that symbolic action has been most successful but perhaps more likely due to the kind hospitality of our hosts and the special warmth of Bali. We owe them all a vote of thanks!

Annex 1: Communiqué Issued by the Commission to the Press, at Montevideo on November 3, 1933

On meeting for the first time, the Commission of the League of Nations wishes, first of all, to thank the Uruguayan Government and nation for its kind hospitality and for the facilities which have been afforded to it to enable its labors to proceed, according to its intentions, in an atmosphere of complete independence.

Note on the larva and the postlarval development of Leucosolenia variabilis , H. sp., with remarks on the develop­ment of other asconidæ

Through the kind hospitality of Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers, I was able to spend the spring and summer of last year at the marine laboratories of Banyuls-sur-Mer and Roscoff, where I was chiefly engaged in studying the embryology of the Ascons.

On some Ascidians from the Isle of Wight: a Study in Variation and Nomenclature.

Although the Isle of Wight has been a favourite haunt of the geologist and the palæontologist, references to its present marine fauna are exceedingly rare in zoological literature. Early in May of the present year, however, I had an opportunity, at the suggestion and through the kind hospitality of my friend Mr. Poulton, of examining the littoral fauna of the eastern shores of the island, and of making a considerable collection of zoological specimens. A list of the species which I obtained will be published as soon as I have had time to complete the examination of them; but several of the Ascidians throw so much light upon the brief and obscure descriptions of certain species, that I believe it will be serviceable to give a full account of them without further delay, especially since the pressure of other work may prevent an early appearance of the complete list.