Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 September 13

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September 13

Four white horses

Did Augustus ever ride a chariot drawn by four white horses? Temerarius (talk) 03:23, 13 September 2018 (UTC)

If I understand correctly, white horses were a thing in Roman triumphs. According to this book, Augustus seems not to have used them. --Wrongfilter (talk) 05:33, 13 September 2018 (UTC)

Well if i can paint my horses any color i like i bet a roman Emperor easily could too. Anyway, this idea connected to roman culture seem more originated in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ than in roman history. Atleast roman mythology is not mentioned at all in White horse (mythology). --Kharon (talk) 13:47, 16 September 2018 (UTC)

So, when Propertius wrote about Romulus driving four white horses he was inspired by Ben Hur and didn't know his mythology? --Wrongfilter (talk) 14:02, 16 September 2018 (UTC)

Wikiality

Is it possible to see the segment of The Colbert Report when Colbert introduced the word Wikiality? L293D (☎ • ✎) 14:44, 13 September 2018 (UTC)

Yep (unless geoblocking stops you from seeing this): [1]. --Wrongfilter (talk) 14:52, 13 September 2018 (UTC)

G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway checkpoint near Beijing?

There are widely shared photos and videos of a jam on the G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway at the end of the Chinese national day golden week [2] in October 2015. But a lot of the reports are thoroughly confused. Actually even our article. They talk about a 50 lane highway merging into a 20 lane check point but this is just wrong. It may be the cars have expanded to fill 50 lanes, I've never counted but there is no 50 lane intended anywhere. The toll plaza is 25 lanes and this seems reasonable since the road itself is 4 lanes (one direction).

But the thing which confuses me is that even sources which do a decent job of debunk these myths don't really explain what's happening [3] [4]. These seems to be something going on after the toll plaza more than vehicles simply trying trying to merge back into the 4 lane expressway. Some reports mention a new checkpoint after the toll plaza but I haven't found any which explain what for. (Some seem to conflate the checkpoint with the toll plaza itself.)

These is a blue roof structure after toll plaza but only a small number of vehicles seem to be going through it. (I guess it could be some sort of topup centre for some sort of electronic pass but I'm surprised there are so few using it in that case and it also seems to be weirdly located.) A much larger number are going to the left. But weirdly it looks like there are 2 separate streams. Some to the immediate left of the blue structure. And some in segregated section to the left of this, there's some sort of barrier between them, they eventually merge a while after the blue structure. (It could be that all vehicles going in that part are meant to go through the blue roof structure.)

There's some other structure at the end of the barrier, it sort of looks like a house but I assume this isn't one of those 'property owner refused to sell so let's build the road around them' situations since the barrier only protects them on one side. There's writing on the blue roof structure in the video in the first external link ([5]), but I can't make it out even at high resolution. The location is near Beijing so I assume it isn't some sort of migration control. The blue roof structure etc are visible on Google's satellite view [6]

(In the jam video, some vehicles also seem to be making a u-turn after the toll plaza and heading back down another road but I suspect this may just be vehicles misusing an access road or on ramp.)

Nil Einne (talk) 20:39, 13 September 2018 (UTC)