The Smarthistory folks do a very interesting job with this one, even if they do zip over the story a bit too quickly:

• David’s The Intervention of the Sabine Women | Smarthistory.

I was wondering if this was going to be brought up, given the current situation in Greece … from the Guardian:

David Cameron has rejected a call for Britain to “put right a wrong” that dates back just short of two centuries by returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece.

Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, reopened the issue of the marble sculptures, currently in the British Museum, when he incorporated the Greek financial crisis in a Commons question.

George told Cameron at prime minister’s questions that Britain could do its bit to help Greece by returning the sculptures to Athens.

He made the suggestion after the prime minister reiterated his belief that the European financial mechanism should be used to bail Greece out of its financial problems.

George told Cameron: “Whilst of course we should not be making a unilateral contribution to the Greek bailout, does the prime minister not agree that we have something which would help regenerate the Greek economy and put right a 200-year wrong – and that is to give the marbles back”.

Cameron said he had no intention of allowing Britain to “lose its marbles”. He told MPs: “I’m afraid I don’t agree … the short answer is that we’re not going to lose them.”

• via David Cameron rejects call to return Parthenon marbles to Greece | Guardian.

Of course, at this point in time, even if the marbles were to be returned, they’d probably not have enough staff to allow anyone to see them properly …

 

Nice feature in Fortean Times … here’s the incipit:

Alexander of Abonoteichus may not be one of the most famous figures of the second century AD… in fact, with a mouthful of a name like that it’s surprising anyone remembers him at all. But a Roman emperor threw lions into the Danube on the advice of Alexander’s talking snake, so he obviously made, well, a bit of a splash…

Alexander was born at the beginning of the second century and lived until the 170s. According to his own publicity, he was the prophet of a new god, Glycon, a purveyor of oracles and a healer; to his opponents, he was a charlatan and a conman. But the cult he started appealed to all classes of society and spread throughout the Roman Empire, surviving his own death by perhaps another century, which isn’t bad going if he was nothing but a trickster. […]

• via Snake or Fake? | Features | Fortean Times.

… speaking of Fortean Times, one of my summer goals is to resume Barry Baldwin’s columns therefrom … stay tuned on that score.

From the Hollywood Reporter comes word of some Classical connections in an upcoming movie called Snow White and the Huntsman … inter alia:

In the script, the dwarfs are named after Roman emperors with McShane playing the group’s leader, Caesar, Jones as a timid dwarf named Claudius and Izzard playing Tiberius, described as the biggest and burliest of the crew. Hoskins will play Constantine, a blind dwarf, Graham an angry-looking dwarf named Nero.

Winstone is playing Trajan, the twin brother of Hadrian (Marsan).

• via Ray Winstone Rounds Out Cast of Dwarfs in ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter.

Not sure why they’re named after Roman emperors … did they have names in Grimm?

Something clearly lost in translation in this one from Al-Masry Al-Youm:

A huge palace from the Roman ages (31-395 BC) has been discovered in the New Valley Governorate in Upper Egypt, the Ministry of Antiquities announced Monday.

An US expedition in the Amhada region, 500km south of Cairo, unearthed a palace belonging to a person named Sornius, according to a statement by the ministry.

The ministry said the palace cannot be opened to the public due to erosion, but it said a copy will be constructed for visitors.

It added that the US team was able to translate the inscriptions found in the palace, which helped elucidate ancient cultural and educational activities in the region.

The team’s findings suggested that ancient Egyptian farmers might have worked in the region of the oases before coming to the Nile Valley.

• via Giant Roman palace unearthed in Upper Egypt | Al-Masry Al-Youm.

I doubt the photo accompanying the article has anything to do with this find; I strongly suspect palace=villa … I can’t find where the “Ministry of Antiquities” announced this, if it made it to the web, so we’ll have to wait for mre details I guess …