nonas apriles
- ludi Megalesia in honour of Cybele (day 2)
- rites in honour of Fortuna Publica
- 347 B.C. — death of Plato (by one reckoning)
Month: April 2009
Breviaria Archaeologica
Some assorted items caught in the screen:
Will Bowden is fighting to have a buried Roman villa site in Notthingham preserved from development:
A bit out of the period of our purview, but likely of interest, is a report of a mosaic from a synagogue at Ma’On Nirim being cleaned and open to the public:
- One of the Most Spectacular Mosaic Floors Ever Discovered in Israel was Restored and Renovated (Art Daily)
Similiter, a Byzantine ‘bath house’ find near a kibbutz:
- Byzantine Bathhouse Provides Shelter Amid Rocket Attacks (Arutz Sheva)
Strange — to me at least — is this story about archaeologists explaining failure to find a Roman wall in Gloucester as the result of ‘medieval recycling’ (seems plausible; I just find it strange that this would warrant press coverage):
- Roman wall escapes archaeologists’ trowels (This is Gloucestershire)
Reassessing the Roman occupation (or lack thereof) in Wigan:
- When Romans ruled our town … (Wigan Today)
Heritage Lottery funding to tourisify Colchester Roman Circus has fallen through:
- Funding setback for Roman racing track (East Anglian Daily Times)
Centurion Update
An excerpt from Jessica Barnes’ piece at Cinematical:
Centurion centers on the famed 9th Legion fighting for their lives behind enemy lines after a devastating guerrilla attack, and joining Kurylenko for the hacking and slashing are Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds), who plays the title character, Dominic West, and Noel Clarke. Marshall spoke with Empire during a set-visit and he described Kurylenko’s character Etain thusly: “Her family were butchered by the Romans, she had her tongue cut out by the Romans, she’s had a hell of a time and she’s out for Roman blood.” In reality, the 9th Legion were Cesar’s most faithful soldiers who were believed to be lost during their stay in Britain while fighting the Scots — a theory that while the inspiration for plenty of historical novels, has since been debunked. But, true or not, I won’t hold it against Marshall, because it probably made for a much more interesting story than the truth.
cf:
Breviaria 04/04/09
Assorted items which have caught my eye of late:
The headline says it all:
Some sort of 3d modelling project for the Acropolis was recently undertaken:
We linked to several of Suzan Mazur’s posts relating to Robert Hecht and Marion True a few years ago … her (excellent) articles are apparently now part of some Harvard Law syllabus:
The latest issue of the American Journal of Archaeology is out, with a number of online articles of interest available:
Short item on the Classical Studies Club at the College of New Jersey:
Feature on an historical reenactment group based in Rome called SPQR:
- Who says Rome is dead? (Global Post)
Bulgarian coverage of the recent returns by of a couple of thousand of purloined items from Bulgaria (includes a small slide show of various items):
The Classics folks at Warwick are venturing into the world of podcasting … here’s the first (I’ll hopefully get a chance to listen to it and review it in the near future):
The latest installment of Dear Socrates at Philosophy Now (I still don’t understand how there can be a viable philosophy magazine and there’s no Classics magazine on the newsstands):
Charlotte Higgins was talking about odd Classical etymologies:
The BBC had a feature on Albania trying to cash in on Butrint (and other sites):
Andrew Chugg is involved in a project to reconstruct Cleitarchus’ History of Alexander … the promo book site has a pile of interesting things (including videos and the like not necessarily connected to Cleitarchus) … worth a look:
If you haven’t downloaded the full Gnomon Bibliographical Databank yet:
Discovery News’ Jennifer Viegas recently interviewed Rachel Havrelock about the historical Jesus:
Latest from the Spoof:
More Roman Humour
Mary Beard continues to make the rounds talking about ancient humour, and it appears she was asked about who she believed was the funniest Roman. She decided it was Cicero (!) and you can read the Times coverage to find out why … I’m using this as an excuse to excerpt the chunk which shows other Romans’ histohumorical quips:
A funny thing happened on the way to the amphitheatre
— The elder Crassus was said to have laughed only once in his life. What caused Crassus to crack up? The sight of a donkey eating thistles and the well-known saying that came to mind: “Thistles are like lettuce to the lips of a donkey”
— In the middle of the Civil War the exasperated Pompey is reputed to have said of his reluctant ally Cicero: “I wish to goodness Cicero would go over to the enemy, then he would learn to fear us”
— A man leaving the Roman theatre was asked by another whether he had seen the play. “No, stupid,” he replied. “I was playing ball in the orchestra”
— Gaius Memmius, the tribune of 111BC, was said to have had taken a bite out of the arm of a man called Largus, as they were tussling over the affections of a woman.
— Crassus claimed that all over the town of Terracina the letters MMLLL were pasted up on the walls: “Mordacious Memmius Lacerates Largus’ Limb”
— A joke made to a one-eyed man, Gaius Sextius: “I shall dine with you my friend, for I see you’ve got a place for another one.” “This,” said Cicero, “is the unacceptable joke of a scurra [professional clown] both because it was unprovoked, and because it could be used against any one-eyed individual”
— Cicero was defending his client Milo on the charge of murdering the infamous Clodius in 52 BC and was under interrogation from the prosecution. The case was going to hinge on exact timing. When did Clodius die, they asked him. And here is the joke, the one that is, on its own, enough to justify the whole category of double entendres: Cicero replied with just one word, sero. The pun is on the two senses of sero: both “late” and “too late”. Clodius died late in the day, and he should have been got rid of years before.
In a related item, Charlotte Higgins ponders whether Cicero is actually worthy of our praise:
- Is Cicero worthy of our praise? (Guardian)
See also/cf. (from May of last year … a piece by Dr Beard for the Times):
rogueclassicism 