Thanks to all of you who entered to win a copy of William Wallace's new book,
Michelangelo: the Artist, the Man, and His Times. I always love a good giveaway, and I love having fun prizes, too.
Congratulations to Carolyn!
She's the winner of
this giveaway. She has a really nice collection of printable bookmarks on her blog,
Corner of the Library -- handy for all you book worms! You'll find her on Twitter, too:
cmcarpenter28.
I'd love to send you each a prize, but this will just have to do...
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| Image courtesy of the Walters Art Museum |
This gold medal was found in Egypt -- part of a cache of similar medallions one of which was inscribed "Olympic Games of the year 274." Now in
the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, this medal may have been a prize from the Olympic Games held during Emperor Caracalla's reign (198-217 AD). That's Caracalla depicted on the medallion with his shield.
The Romans were as Olympics-crazy as we are today, and they adopted the Greek custom with a fervor.
Nike made an appearance even at those ancient games -- just not in swoosh form. Look at Caracalla's shield. That's Nike, the goddess of victory, on the shield depicted in the bobsled of the day, a chariot.
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| Reverse of the medal. Image courtesy of the Walters Art Museum. |
Faster! Higher! Stronger!
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