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Jul 3 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Here is a thread recapping #palindrome history week for #TweetHistorians, courtesy of Mark Saltveit who reverts to @taoish now.

Monday, we started with a thread on the ancient sacred origins of palindromes as spells, curses and words of the gods. 1/7 -ms
Tuesday: Sotades the Obscene, inventor of palindromes, the Priapeia, sotadean metre and so much more. Also: the kinaidoi (effeminate dancers of Alexandria), Arsinoe the sex-positive proto-feminist queen, incestual royal marriage and sick burns. 2/7 -ms
Wednesday: later antique Greek palindromes from the oldest letter-by-letter verse (a school exercise in Tebtunis Egypt) through the Greek Anthology, Leo the Wise, Western Euopean baptismal fonts and Theodoros Prodromos. 3/7 -ms
Thursday: multi-directional writing in non-European languages, a topic that is grievously unpublicized. Egyptian, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Indian (Sanskrit and Telugu), Persian, Japanese and Chinese. Know any Samaritan? Armenian? Mayan? hmu @taoish
4/7 -ms
Friday: the legendary SATOR / ROTAS square in all its complexity. The Hollywood celebrity of palindromes with its drastically undervalued Coptic and Egyptian history, the rare manuscripts and well-known church inscriptions, magical uses and so on. 5/7 -ms
Saturday: Latin verse palindromes (aka "versus recurrentes"). An underground scribal tradition that lasted for 14 centuries, always referencing "Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor". Focus on Carolingian Irish monks & a palaeographical puzzle. 6/7 -ms
Finally, Sunday, this thread of threads summing up the week. Thanks for following along!

I’m presenting a paper at #IMC2022 Thursday at 9am, Stage 2.

Also at Edinburgh Fringe Festival Aug 6-28th @ Kilderkin Pub, 7:30 nightly save Tuesdays, as part of the PBH Free Fringe.- 7/7 Listing for a talk by Mark Saltveit at the International MedListing for the comedy improv show "Palindrome Fight!&q

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More from @Tweetistorian

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Jul 2
Day 6 of palindromic #TwitterHistorian @taoish Mark Saltveit's stint. Yesterday, the SATOR / ROTAS square. Today, "versus recurrentes" = Latin palindromic poetry, mostly 1 line. At #IMC2021, I argued that it was a continuous & self-referential genre from 2nd-15th c. CE.
1/12 -ms
I listed 42 but documenting is tricky. These were rarely in main texts. Most appeared in margins or on fly leaves, but repeated over the centuries. Theory: these were transmitted by teachers, esp. of scribes, and passed via wax tablets, memory & pen tests (federproben).
2/12 -ms Slide from Mark Saltveit's talk at the International MedievaA second slide from Mark Saltveit's talk at the Internationa
The classic (and first known) Latin verse #palindrome is a dactylic pentameter: "Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor." Sidonius Apollinaris (ep. 9.14, ~480 CE) called it ancient. It's on a roof tile from Aquincum dated 107 CE next to a ROTAS square & at Ostia (200 CE). 3/12 -ms Roof tile from Aquincum, Pannonia (near modern day Budapest,The text of that portion of Sidonius Apollinaris' letter to St. Gall MS 889 with "Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amoRoma Tibi graffito at Ostia, from Guarducci
Read 15 tweets
Tweeting Historians Profile picture
Jul 2
Day 4 of #TweetHistorian Mark Saltveit @taoish's look at #palindromes. Thursday we viewed palindromic forms in non-European languages, a sadly neglected topic. "Today": the SATOR / ROTAS square, attested 4x in the first c. CE: 3x at Pompeii, 1x at Conimbriga in Portugal. 1/12 -ms The oldest known ROTAS squa...The third ROTAS square foun...ROTAS square graffito from ...ROTAS square on a brick fou...
It's the Hollywood celebrity of #palindromes, thx to Chris Nolan's film TENET. It starts at an OPERA. ROTAS is the time reversal machine. TENET is the name of the conspiracy. Andrei SATOR is the villain. Thomas AREPO is an art forger we never see. 2/12 -ms beyondwordplay.com/palindromes-at… John David Washington, ex-p...TENET's director Christophe...Promotional poster for the ...A promotional image for the...
This square is an image, a graphic composed of letters, arguably the world's first and most successful meme. Calling it a Latin sentence (SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS, or the reverse) is a hypothesis with v. little historical support. AREPO is not a Latin word or name. 3/12 -ms ROTAS stone now embedded in...
Read 16 tweets
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May 22
Day 7.

Let's try to tie this all together. Yesterday, we looked at how the spread of monotheism to South Arabia impacted its political sphere. Today, let's take a look at South Arabia during the early Islamic period.

~ik
Yesterday I mentioned how the Ethiopian Aksumites invaded South Arabia and installed a local Christian ruler. Around 530 AD, it was followed by that of the Ethiopian general ʾAbraha.

However, ʾAbraha made sure to follow in the footsteps of his Himyaritic predecessors.

~ik In the Islamic tradition, Abraha is called ʾAbraha al-ʾAš
For example, he claimed the Himyarite royal title, had reparations made at the Marib dam, and continued to leave inscriptions in the Sabaic language. He also continued to wage campaigns in Central Arabia; the inscription mentioned day 5 is actually one of his!

~ik
Read 18 tweets
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May 21
Day 6.

Yesterday, we looked at what the Amirite and Himyarite inscriptions tell us about the linguistic landscape of South Arabia in the late pre-Islamic period.

Now, let's look at the socio-political environment during the same period.

~ik ImageImage
The 3rd century AD saw an intensification of relations between South Arabia and the Mediterranean/Levant. These statues depicting the Himyaritic rulers Ḏamarʿalī Yuhabirr and his son, Ṯaʾban are a fantastic example of this cultural exchange.

~ik Image
The statues show a coalescence of Hellenistic and South Arabian features: their nudity and the headbands typical ot former, the long hair and the moustache, ot the latter.

Also: the sculptors left their signature on the statues' knees, showing Hellenistic/SA collaboration.

~ik ImageImageImage
Read 12 tweets
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May 20
Day 5 – slightly delayed.

Today, let's look more at the Himyarites and the language of their inscriptions. They reveal some more important clues about South Arabia's linguistic landscape during the late pre-Islamic period. ~ik
The Himyarites became the main political force in S-A around 300 AD. Around 280 AD, the Himyarite ruler Yāsir Yuhanʿim conquered the Sabaeans; his successor Šammar Yuharʿiš took parts of Ḥaḍramawt. By the early 4th century all of Ḥaḍramawt had been conquered ~ik
The Himyarites' success is reflected in the language of the inscriptions. From the 4th to the 6th centuries, all the S-A inscriptions are written in what we call Late Sabaic.

The differences are both linguistic and paleographic. ~ik Middle Sabaic inscription CIAS 95.11/j 4 n° 1 Late Sabaic inscription Gar Sharahbil A
Read 16 tweets
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May 19
Back for day 4!
Yesterday, we saw how the inscriptions of the different South Arabian states show the region's linguistic diversity.

Today, we're going to look at the first evidence of Arabic and the importance of the Himyarites.

Link to day 3: ~ik
Around 200 BC, the Minaean state collapsed. This was likely due to both ecological and economic changes in the region.

The Minaeans' homeland, the Jawf, saw the arrival of a new group of settlers: the North Arabian tribe of ʾAmīr (ʾmr(m), also known as the Amirites. ~ik ImageImage
The arrival of the Amirites had some important social consequences. For example, they brought with them a new deity, Ḏu Samāwī (ḏ-s¹mwy), who was integrated into the broader South Arabian pantheon.

The Amirites also took over the S-A script, and began leaving inscriptions ~ik ImageImage
Read 16 tweets

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