SPQR Blues Chapter V: XXV

I'm going to get back to drawing as soon after a little sleep and try to finish XXVI. Tomorrow and the rest of the week are going to be very busy, so I'd like to get as much story done as possible....

( Read more... )

 

SPQR Blues Chapter V: XXVI (and XXV)

Here are both of this weekend's comics.

There's a little cleanup and tweaking and inking still to be done, but Domitian is impatient.

( Read more... )

 
The Flavian court--or, at least, Vespasian and Titus--strove to avoid the reputation for extravagance and profligacy of the previous regime, especially Nero's excesses and empire-bankrupting expenditures on luxuries and banquets. Why then the elaborate coiffures of the Flavian women, which became de rigueur fashion for many wealthy women of the time?

I read an interesting commentary on that recently. The hairstyles, elaborate as they were, also could represent the opposite of extravagance. Poets joked about how the piles of curls and coils made a tiny woman look deceptively tall and regal, a rude trick on an admirer and a literally over-the-top fashion statement; but the detailed hairstyles, with their emphasis on precise architecture and dependence on upright posture, could represent order, morality, strictness, and creating refinement from chaos. Everything Vespasian and Titus wanted to present to the world about their new dynasty.