Lately, I’ve been wondering what mass transit thousands of years ago might have looked like. I tried to do an artist’s concept of a chariot bus, but it turned out a bit more like a stretch chariot limo.
Here is another stretch vehicle that makes no sense to me...
Traveling in ancient times was risky business with a much higher incidence of animal attacks, bandit attacks, toll tax... I guess it still can be tough if you are pleasure sailing off Somalia, driving a car in downtown Nice, France on a Friday at rush hour, or the like.
Traveling in ancient times was risky business with a much higher incidence of animal attacks, bandit attacks, toll tax... I guess it still can be tough if you are pleasure sailing off Somalia, driving a car in downtown Nice, France on a Friday at rush hour, or the like.
Frequently, travelers would make vows to create altars after the return from a trip. And I'm not just talking about a trip to Starbucks or taking the chariot down for an oil change; I'm talking about trips to different cities that actually did involve a degree of danger. Most often these monuments had the Latin 'VOTVM SOLVIT LAETUS LIBENS MERITO' carved in, which means 'fulfilled his promise gladly, willingly, and deservedly' to whoever the traveler believed had control over his destiny.
After a while, all that marble carving got a bit onerous, so the state and merchant guilds set up ‘good-luck’ carvings along the most commonly used paths. These were called ‘hermes’ which were typically small columns with a head growing out on top, kind of like the original Sponge Bob.
Here is a picture of some hermes I took in the Correr museum (I think) without the typically associated plinth (base).
Anyway, happy trails...Mi sono chiesto che cosa un autobus sarà simile 2000 anni fa...
ps - che cazzo fa una 'smart car' limosine???
