I can already hear my readers saying “Who?”. Willi Dansgaard was a climatologist who pioneered checking Greenland ice cores and the like for evidence of climate change. From a Classics perspective:

Dansgaard later organised or participated in more than 19 expeditions to the glaciers of Norway, Greenland and Antarctica, and went on to develop ways to date gases trapped in the ice as well as to analyse acidity, dust and other influences on climate, including volcanic eruptions.

Thus, analyses of the acidity levels in ice cores have shown that a particularly large eruption produced of acidic fallout on Greenland for three years roundabout 50BC (possibly supporting accounts of a dimming of the sun after Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC, which is reported in the writings of Virgil and Pliny the Elder).

• Willi Dansgaard – Telegraph.

… which is one of the many ‘Bethlehem stars’ for the Classics set (along with Halley’s comet, which doesn’t quite match Julius Caesar’s assassination).

While poking around Youtube yesterday, I came across a pile of videos from the Hauenstein Center, which apparently hosted a conference called Barack Obama and the Lessons of Antiquity in which a pile of big name Classicists made some interesting comparisons. Near as I can tell, all of the talks are available, so over the next few days I’ll be posting them here. The first is Robert Garland on American Empire and Global Leadership (this is the first paper after Bruce Thornton’s keynote address, which I’ll post at the end … there are, of course, some introductory remarks prior to Dr Garland’s assumption of the podium):

Adrian Murdoch approaches the end of the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’:

• Emperors of Rome: Vitellius

This week’s subject: what caused the death of Alexander.

• What Caused The Death Of Alexander The Great? – Booked – Reading unbound – Forbes.