From the Vassar publication called The Miscellany News: Professor Robert Pounder will lecture in the Villard Room entitled “Carl and Libbie and Bert and Ida: Re-defining Family.” The lecture will center around Pounder’s research concerning the intertwined relationships between four American archeologists in the first half of the twentieth century: Vassar alumnae, Ida Thallon Hil1, [...]

Interesting project … from the Harvard Gazette: Long before the Italians rediscovered original Greek sources during the Renaissance, Arab scholars recognized the importance of ancient science and philosophy and began translating precious writings into Arabic. Now, Classics Professor Mark Schiefsky wants to transform those ancient Greek texts and their Arabic translations into an open-access digital [...]

Seriously kewl, and with obvious potential classroom use: Official Google Blog: When in Rome: New Street View imagery of historic sites in Italy and France.

Whom the gods would destroy, they inflict with Katy Perry, I think. First of all (as I was complaining on Facebook the other day), I can no longer watch the local news because it has an ad for a radio station which implants an earworm of Katy Perry’s ‘California Girls’ (or whatever) every time I [...]

One of my ongoing irritants is when an otherwise-respectable news source — such as the BBC — gives its journalistic imprimatur to ‘news’ which is clearly questionable without even thinking too hard or (worse) as a precursor to a documentary which will be appearing later on some television station, such as, well, the BBC. A [...]

Very interesting item from the Wine Spectator which actually answers some long-held questions I’ve had about wines from Mt Massico: Our image of ancient Roman drinking—bloated patricians, slurry sophists and jezebels washing down coarse wine from jars—is only part of the story. Ample evidence exists that ancient Rome had a fine wine culture much like [...]

I’m not familiar with Philippine customs, so I don’t know if donning a toga for an impeachment proceeding is tradition or theatre … coming into the incidents in medias res isn’t helpful for interpretation either, so FWIW: SEN. PANFILO Lacson reported for work Monday, after going AWOL (absent without leave) for more than 13 months. [...]

They’re having a conference to mark his retirement at UT Austin: The Department of Classics at The University of Texas at Austin will host  a conference on “Greek Law in the 21st Century” to celebrate the career and retirement of Professor Emeritus Michael Gagarin, March 31-April 2. The event is free and open to the [...]

Nice when the big guns step in … from the Harvard Crimson: Classics Professor Richard F. Thomas joined students, parents, and other Massachusetts professors yesterday evening at a public hearing at F.A. Day Middle School, urging the Newton Public School Committee to reconsider the implementation of a proposed budget that would eliminate Latin courses at [...]

ante diem iv kalendas apriles 119 — martyrdom of Secundus at Asti ca. 311 — martyrdom of Pastor, Victorinus, and companions at Nicomedia  

An online paper by David Pritchard … here’s the abstract: This article concerns the paradox of athletics in classical Athens. Democracy may have opened up politics to every class of Athenian but it had little impact on sporting participation. The city’s athletes continued to drawn predominantly from the upper class. It comes as a surprise [...]

Seen on the Classicists list: Announcement of a conference organized by the Network on Ancient and Modern Imperialisms. The Past-Colonial: Classics and the Colonization of the Past Friday April 1st – Sunday April 3rd 2011 Yale University Department of Classics in association with the International Network on Ancient and Modern Imperialisms and Yale’s Ancient Societies [...]

I’m used to wading through journalistic attempts to make a quotation from Marcus Aurelius relevant to whatever they’re writing about. Today I was pointed to a very interesting blog, the title of which is pretty much self explanatory: Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations Translated into Housewife.

Registration open for Triennial Conference, University of Cambridge, 25-28 July 2011 Hosted by the Faculty of Classics, the Celebration of Classics will see a remarkable line up of international scholars brought together in a novel format for such an event. There will, of course, be some very distinguished plenary lecturers, and there will also be [...]

Over the weekend, the Makeuseof folks mentioned this site to make ‘fake’ Facebook profiles, which is something I have been planning to do with my history classes at some point. One of their ‘favourites’, it turns out, is one made for Hermes: Hermes (Mercury) Fake Facebook Profile – MyFakeWall.com. I expect my announcing this will [...]

I’m only semi-surprised that the Daily Mail has fallen for this semi-regular silliness, inter alia: The first trains, in the 19th century, were made to the same width as horse-drawn wagons, which were, in turn, built to fit in the ruts left in the roads by the chariots of the Roman invaders two millennia ago. [...]

Adrian Murdoch’s series continues with a guy who had issues with the Dacians: #13 Trajan: Emperors of Rome