Romans in China Redux
Folks who follow me on Twitter (for whatever reason) know that I spent much of yesterday returning to using Thunderbird as my email program of choice, during the course of which I came across assorted things which I had put aside to check out later, etc.. Among those items was the oft-repeated story about people [...]
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem ix kalendas maias Vinalia (urbana) — the wine which was ‘bottled’ in the previous autumn was opened and tasted for the first time, after a libation to Jupiter 248 A.D. — third day of celebration of Rome’s 1000th anniversary
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem x kalendas maias 178 A.D. — martyrdom of Epipodias at Lyons 202 A.D. — martyrdom of Leonidas in Alexandria 248 A.D. — second day of celebrations for Rome’s 1000th anniversary ca 250 A.D. — martyrdom of Helimenas at Babylon
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem xi kalendas maias Parilia (a.k.a. Palilia) — originally a festival in honour of Pales (who protected shepherds and their flock), it eventually evolved — in the city of Rome, at least — into a ‘birthday of Rome’ celebration 753 B.C. — traditional date for the foundation of Rome 43 B.C. — pro-Caesarian forces [...]
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem xii kalendas maias ca 117 — martyrdom of Servilian and Sulpicius
Cleo’s ‘Tomb’ ~ Further Thoughts
This one’s starting to bother me, even though I’ve now seen the ‘mask’ being identified with varying degrees of certainty as ‘possibly’ Marcus Antonius. A correspondent sends in a nice video from the site (from a German version of Reuters; the video is in English), which I can’t embed, so here’s the link. What I [...]
Cleo’s Tomb Update: the Anthony Photo
This just in as I’m putting together Explorator … Reuters has entered the ‘Cleopatra’s Tomb’ hype with an article that includes an interesting slide show, among which is: … presumably the alabaster Cleopatra, the coins, and — most importantly — the mask I’ve been curious about for over a year. Here’s another photo with the [...]
Alexander Tomb Update
Some must-reading in the wake of last week’s silliness … it’s clear that there’s even sillier stuff going on in FYROM/Macedonia: Macedonia: Alexander the Great as Media Bait (Global Voices)
Dryden Portrait of Interest
Getting a smattering of attention this week is a piece about a portrait of John Dryden, which was recently put on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Of interest to us — besides the fact we all know about his translating of epics and the like — is this bit from the Guardian: The portrait [...]
The Spartafication Continues
Hmmm … first we had the 300 workout, designed to get our abs (etc.) looking like some guys hanging out at Thermopylae, now we hear (via amicus noster John McChesney-Young) that there’s an actual Spartan Diet program … although the rogueclassicist could stand to embark on both of these, I suspect he won’t in the [...]
Performing Thucydides
This one was mentioned on the Classics list last week but I didn’t note by whom (apologies) … Some excerpts from a lengthy piece in the San Antonio Current: Our cities grow in size, our awareness of the world around us increases, technology steadily advances, but some things remain immutable, chief among them human nature. [...]
Olympians Up To Their Old Tricks?
Double take headline of the week was: Catherine Keener Has A Baby With Zeus … which now appears to have been “corrected” to: Catherine Keener Has A Baby With Poseidon I suspect the watery one is just covering up for the well-known proclivities of his brother, who probably just wants to avoid another Europa … [...]
Scylla and Charybdis Origin?
A piece on the discovery of a vast colony of black coral in the Straits of Messina (which will, no doubt, affect Berlusconi’s bridge plans … and also makes me wonder if we’ll soon be hearing of some shipwreck discoveries), has an interesting closing bit: The town of Scilla, near the site of the coral [...]
Mary Beard on Roman Publishing
Our favourite Cambridge Don has a nice piece in the New York Times on getting published in ancient Rome … here’s a tease: Bookstores in Rome clustered in particular streets. One was the Vicus Sandalarius, or Shoemakers Row, not far from the Colosseum (convenient for post-gladiatorial browsing). Here you would find the outsides of the [...]
Iliad Reading with a Twist
Here’s a worthy project I could see Latin/Classics clubs adapting and/or emulating … from the Indy Star: Latin students from North Central High School will use the tale of an ancient war to launch their own modern war on poverty. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday at Kids Ink Bookstore, 56th and Illinois [...]
d.m. David Parsons
In case you missed it in one of the other sources, David Parsons — of ARLT fame — recently completed his c.v.. His son has written a very moving blogpost at David’s erstwhile blog … worth a read. Another online colleague whom I never met who will be missed …
Roman Bath at Bankso
This one — from FYROM/Macedonia probably has more bona fides lurking in it than claims of Alexander’s tomb … from Balkan Travellers: Detailed archaeological excavations began at the thermal Roman bath in Bansko near the south-eastern Macedonian town of Strumica. The site is being studied and analysed so that a project for its complete reconstruction [...]
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem xvi kalendas maias ludi Cereri (day 5) 43 B.C. — Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) is hailed as Imperator for the first time 69 A.D. — suicide of the emperor wannabe Otho (this might have occured on April 17) 304 A.D. — martyrs of Saragossa 1928 — death of Jane Ellen Harrison (Prolegomena [...]
Not the Ides
I really wish our friends to the south would lobby the powers that be to change their tax-due-date from April 15 to something more sensible (say, April 30, like it is up here in the Great Overcast North). Every year, without fail, there will be some journalist who will write something along the lines of: [...]
Cleopatra’s Tomb Again!!
Okay … this is a long-developing story. Last year — almost to the day — Zahi Hawass was all excited about some major underground tomb at Tabusiris Magna; it seemed to be building on something announced a couple of years before that. A month later, we were pretty much getting the same story. Then we [...]
Doorworthy
Tip o’ the pileus to Ivo Volt: The Argyle Sweater
Columnar Crime?
Somewhat strange (to me) item apparently circulating with not enough detail on the AP Wire … from PR Inside: Police in northern Greece say they have seized six sections of ancient marble columns from a junkyard and arrested the owners for antiquity smuggling. The sections of the 2,300-year-old columns are up to 13 feet (4 [...]
New at the Getty
More news on the benefits the Getty is receiving from its agreement with Italy … the incipit of a brief item from Reuters: California’s Getty Museum, one of the world’s richest art institutions, has received the first two artworks from Italy under a deal that settled a 2006 dispute over looted antiquities. Getty officials said [...]
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem xviii kalendas maias ludi Cereri continue (day 3) — games in honour of the grain goddess Ceres, instituted by/before 202 B.C. 69 A.D. — first battle at Bedriacum; the forces of emperor wannabe Vitellius eventually would defeat the forces of emperor wannabe Otho 73 A.D. — mass suicide at Masada (?) 195 A.D. [...]
If It’s Tuesday, Alexander’s Grave Must Be In …
FYROM … er … Macedonia … er … somewhere it has no business being. Or at least that’s the impression we’re being given from a couple of sources. First, MINA came out with this tantalizingly brief brief: MiNa was not able to verify this information with the Macedonian Government nor with archeologists in Skopje, and [...]
