Hello Friends,
OPEN-HOUSE meets on Sunday, 28th February from 2 pm - 4 pm, at Emmanuel Church Centre, 43 Forest Road, and your hosts will be Aaron Anstey and A. N. Other ~ plus the team. Bring a friend with you ~ OPEN-HOUSE is especially for overseas visitors to L’boro.
There is still time to join the Tuesday VISA Course – contact Bryan, Phil or Steve as soon as possible. Each meeting begins with a meal together.
Have you accessed our website recently? Go to http://www.openhouselboro.blogspot.com/ and find lots of information, news and pictures.
May you all know God’s blessing,
Clive
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Learn from Clive
==☆ Why BRITANNIA ? ☆==
Q >
Why is it that since Roman times, many British coins have depicted 'Britannia' as a warrior seated on a rock?
A >
The name was first recorded by the Greek merchant-explorer 'Pytheas of Massilia' who had circumnavigated Britain some time between 330 and 320 BC. He recorded the local name of the islands in Greek as Prettanika (which Greek historian Diodorus later rendered Pretannia, and the Romans, Britannia).
Pytheas was a celebrated Greek navigator who sailed from Massilia (Marseilles) in Gaul, and lived in the time of Alexandra the Great (356-323 BC). In his first famous voyage he sailed around Britain, reaching Thule (possibly the Shetlands) six days after leaving the northern coast of Britain, and on to Denmark. He is also known to have explored the coasts of western Europe from Cadiz to the Elbe.
Thule is the name given by both Greeks and Romans for the most northerly land known to them, having been originally used by the explorer Pytheas to refer to land he had discovered.
So, long before the Roman Caesar's first invasion of these islands in 55 BC, the Romans knew them by the name 'Britannia'. Britannia seated on a rock may signify Britain as an island, and she was often depicted above the waves, signifying the Roman idea of Britain as being at the edge of the known world. The personification of the country as the goddess Britannia dates from the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-133 BC), her image first appearing on a Roman coin in about the year AD 119.
It is likely that Britannia was based partly on Brigantia, a version of the Great Mother Brigit, goddess of the Celtic Brigantes, as well as the Roman goddess, Minerva. She appears on Hadrian-era coins throughout the Roman Empire, often seated on her cuirass and shield, or a throne, in a pose similar to Britannia. Some images of Britannia on Hadrian's coins are quite aggressive; the coins probably commemorating the warfare that led to the construction of Hadrian's Wall in northern England.
Clive Hilton – June 2007
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