THE ARCH OF JANUS, OSTIA ANTICA, THEN HOME
It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.
— Carson McCullers
BATTLE OF THE MILVIAN BRIDGE
Constantine saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing this inscription: conquer by this.
— Eusebius
CULT OF ANTINOUS
In Mysia, handsome young Hylas was abducted by water nymphs and vanished below the waters of a stream. Heartbroken Herakles went mad with grief, bellowing ‘Hylas! Hylas!’ and ripping out trees as he frantically searched for his beloved. He never abandoned his search, and his cries of ‘Hylas! Hylas!’ continue to echo through the ages every time we say the word ‘alas!’
— Hernestus