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 are removing the text from “City Magazine” until further notice. Although there may be a chance ‘City Magazine’ is right, taking into account their elaborate piece, and there maybe a chance and a good reason for Macedonia to keep this secret, if we can’t verify the information, then it’s not news. To sum up, ‘City Magazine’ claims the Macedonian Government had found the grave of Alexander the Great in the Visje area (near Gevgelija) close to the border with Greece.

Then, the Bulgarian Focus came out with a typically-strangely translated piece (which expresses skepticism, interestingly enough):

Macedonian archaeologist Pasco Kuzman comments to FOCUS News Agency information released by online Macedonian edition and drawn from Serbian blog, which says that the tomb of Alexander the Great has been found at the Greek-Macedonian border with the following words:
“If it is true – it is a big lie. If it is a lie – it is a great truth. Multiplied, it is equal to zero.”
That was the answer of the question weather it is late April’s joke.
***

Macedonian Cyrillic edition published today, a text set out in Belgrade blog City Magazine, which contains a “stunt” for the discovery of the tomb of Alexander of Macedonia, which would have changed the history. Macedonian Edition offers readers the text on the matter stating that perhaps it’s a fictional story of a blogger.
“During reconstruction works on Visie border checkpoint between Macedonia and Greece / officially there is no such border checkpoint – FOCUS notices/, construction workers from” Build ” company uncovered one of the biggest mysteries of antiquity. The discovery has been found in digging of geodesic markers, and then with the permission of building inspectors it led to further construction activities. It was necessary to remove a large stone to dig further in order to make analysis on the ground. After the stone was removed, a granite slab appeared. Thinking that it was a buried wealth from the time of the Ottoman Empire, driver of the excavator began to dig together with his colleagues. Two hours later it became clear that it was a marble building, 30 meters long and four wide, the edition reads further. After descriptions of the finding the Director of the General Inspectorate of the Republic of Macedonia Goce Micevski from the National Museum /there is not such a museum – FOCUS notices/ and experts stated in a joint statement that in the Crypt was found well preserved skeleton with full outfit with gold-bronze armor and shit and mask, which was engraved with the name Alexander.
Journalists were promised to have a press conference in the afternoon, and meanwhile the text quoted the words of the workers involved in the excavations. /The text didn’t mention a date or even a day of a week – FOCUS notices/

FOCUS New Agency recalls:

Pasco Kuzman is Macedonian archaeologist, director of the Institute for the cultural heritage of Macedonia. He took part in restoration works of the historical complex Samuilova fortress in Ohrid.

Of course, there is no possibility that this has to do with the whole FYROM/Macedonia/Greece thing (he said, sarcastically … we need a smiley to denote sarcasm). The sad thing is that there will be piles of folk who buy into this … we’ll wait with bated breath to see if a major news source picks this up. We’re still waiting for pictures of that Bactrian inscription mentioned last week, by the way …

CFP: Translation, Performance, and Reception of Greek Drama …

Translation, Performance, and Reception of Greek Drama, 1900–1950: International Dialogues

A Special Issue of Comparative Drama

Proposals are invited for essays on the translation, performance, and reception of ancient Greek drama in the period between and around the two world wars—so, very broadly speaking, 1900 to 1950. Essays that have an international focus or dimension are particularly encouraged: for example, discussions of translations and adaptations which engage with international politics; considerations of intercontinental trends in Greek play performance; or essays on the various receptions of internationally touring productions (such as Max Reinhardt’s Oedipus, 1910–12, Harley Granville-Barker and Lillah McCarthy’s American tour of Trojan Women and Iphigenia in Tauris, 1915). This special issue, which will be published in late 2010, seeks to encourage and promote research into engagements with Greek drama after the Victorian era and before the 1960s, a significant and interesting period which—though often overlooked—repays close study.

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be sent by 30 April 2009 to Amanda Wrigley, Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3LU, UK or to amanda.wrigley AT classics.ox.ac.uk.

Comparative Drama (ISSN 0010-4078) is a scholarly journal devoted to studies international in spirit and interdisciplinary in scope; it is published quarterly (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter) at Western Michigan University (member, Council of Editors of Learned Journals).

Breviaria

Cleaning out the rest of the inbox …

A new roof for Newport Roman Villa:

Coverage of Richard Seaford’s thoughts about Greek money at the Classical Association:

Coverage of the “Subversive Classics” session at Princeton:

Latin in a Nottingham primary school:

Ancient Greek in a Lexington grade school (!):

Coverage of the Caesar: the man, the deeds, the myth exhibition (I haven’t found much more on the web yet for this exhibition, which is almost over!):

Another exhibition with a bit of ClassCon is Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum:

New at Project Muse:

Interesting article by Amelia Sparavigna:

Larry Hurtado in Slate:

Brief feature on the tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos:

The Classics Online Gateway is a UK outreach effort that looks emulatable …

CONF: Agricola Day

Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge

Day of seminars on Tacitus’ Agricola

Wednesday May 27th 2009, in Faculty Building, Sidgwick Avenue

11. 15–11.20 STEPHEN OAKLEY, Welcome
11. 20–12.45 TONY WOODMAN, The preface + DISCUSSION
12. 45–1.30 LUNCH
1. 30–2.25 CHRIS WHITTON, The voice of Cicero in the Agricola + DISCUSSION
2. 30–3.30 MYLES LAVAN, Slavishness in Britain and Rome + DISCUSSION
3. 30–4.00 TEA
4. 00–4.45 PHILIP HARDIE, Fama in the Agricola + DISCUSSION
4. 45–5.20 STEPHEN OAKLEY, How did Calgacus read his Sallust? + DISCUSSION
5. 20–5.30 BREAK
5. 30–6.45 CHRIS KRAUS, The ethnography (introducing a draft on chapters 10–12 of the commentary which she and Tony Woodman are writing on the Agricola for CUP) + DISCUSSION
6.45–7.30 DRINKS

Anyone interested in the Agricola is welcome. A buffet lunch and drinks after the conference will be provided free of charge for those who notify Stephen Oakley (spo23 AT cam.ac.uk) of their intention to attend. The speakers will be taken out for dinner; others are welcome to come (at their own expense).

CONF: Lucretius in the European Enlightenment

Lucretius in the European Enlightenment

A Conference hosted by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology

The University of Edinburgh

3 – 4 September 2009

For more information and registration details, see
http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/conferences/lucretius09/index.html

Provisional Programme:

David Butterfield (W.H.D. Rouse Research Fellow, Christ’s College, Cambridge):
‘Lucretius’ De rerum natura and classical scholarship in the eighteenth century’

Gianni Paganini (Professor of the History of Philosophy, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy):
‘Lucretius and Bayle’

Ann Thomson (Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Université de Paris 8 – Denis Diderot):
‘Lucretius and la Mettrie’

Catherine Wilson (Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Andrew Heiskell Research Scholar, The City University of New York Graduate Center):
‘Lucretius and Rousseau’

Avi Lifshitz (Lecturer in History, University College London):
‘Lucretius and German debates over the origins of language, c. 1750’

Wolfgang Pross (Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of Berne, Switzerland):
‘»Atheorum antistes et oraculum«: Enemies of Lucretius in the European Enlightenment’

James Harris (Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews):
‘Lucretius and Hume’

Alan Kors (George H. Walker Term Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania):
‘Lucretius and d’Holbach’

Mario Marino (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena):
‘Lucretius and Herder’.

Ernst A. Schmidt (Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Tübingen):
‘Lucretius and Wieland’

Glenn Most (Professor of Greek Philology, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa/ Professor, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago):
‘Lucretius and the sublime in the eighteenth century’

Conference organisers:

Thomas Ahnert (History)
Hannah Dawson (History and Philosophy)
Michael Lurie (Classics)