Chuck Jones of Ancient World Online fame alerts us to L’Annee Epigraphique now being available in JSTOR: AWOL – New Ancient World Content in JSTOR. (woohoo!)

Alas … looks like we’re in for another round of ‘the race of Cleopatra’ silliness: Backlash over Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra | CNN(check the comments too!)

Some press coverage of Lorna Robinson’s latest project: IT’S not every day you get the chance to learn ancient Greek. Now Dr Lorna Robinson is giving people in Oxford the opportunity to pick up the secrets of the language in parks across East Oxford. For the next nine weeks, the director of the educational charity [...]

Image via Wikipedia A call from Harry Mount in the Telegraph: There’s an excellent new report out today by Politeia (which, as any fule know, is the ancient Greek for citizenship). The gist of it is that Latin should be taught in state primary schools. Quite right, I think, and for the reasons they say [...]

Image via Wikipedia A piece on the horrible answers folks get from Yahoo Answers includes this little excerpt: Daniel was fortunate that Matt’s answer was serious. Some responders purposely gave misleading answers. When Kyla asked, “What was the Delian League?”, one responder, phrasing his response in academic prose, told her it was the distance from [...]

ante diem xvii kalendas quinctilias Quinquatrus minusculae (day 3 of a five-day festival honouring the birthday (maybe) of Minerva ) Quando stercus delatus fas (“When the ‘trash’ is taken out”) and the Temple of Vesta is closed to the public 302 A.D. — martyrdom of Hesychius 303 A.D. — martyrdom of Vitus (and companions)

Image via Wikipedia A correspondent notes a discussion on the London Review of Books site (and their Facebook page) about the origins of a line which goes: “When Dido went Aeneas-ing”? … and how it continues. I’ve asked the diligent wombats on the Project Wombat list and have read some good speculation, but it just [...]

Official description: This documentary highlights the Aegean coastal region of Anatolia in today’s southwestern Turkey. Densely settled in Classical times, this region featured some of the most important cities in the ancient world of the eastern Mediterranean. Among these are Ephesus, famous for the Library of Celsus and the Temple of Hadrian; Pergamon, a very [...]

… in Classical Greek: Elections in Belgium / Sanctions against Iran / Football World Cup begins

Here’s another one for your rss reader … the ‘Word Lizard’ has an interesting little blog on puns, usually with some historical connection … the most recent post, e.g., includes the phrase ‘Curculio vespertilio’ ; you’ll have to visit for the context (put your groaning pads on first): The Punder Years – A Pun Blog.

Russell Crowe News | Russell Crowe Is Not Dead.

The incipit of a review of Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass … looks interesting: This tale begins with a Liberal leader and his innovative exploration of the colour blue. Not Nick Clegg and the Tories, but William Gladstone and his concern about Homer’s use of colour in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Gladstone was [...]

A reasonable overview: Mithraic Mysteries and the Cult of Empire | New American.

Image via Wikipedia The incipit of  the BBC’s coverage of the Queen’s Birthday Honours list: A retired Oxford professor of ancient history is to be awarded a Knighthood in the Birthday Honours List for services to Scholarship. Fergus Millar, 74, was Camden Professor of Ancient History Emeritus, Oxford University until he retired in 2002. He [...]

Image via Wikipedia On the periphery of our purview, sort of, semi- … The ancient Iranian “salt men” have been saved from decomposition. “The salt men are currently kept in special showcases under controlled conditions at the Zolfaqari Museum,” the Zanjan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (ZCHTHD) director said in a press conference on [...]