The Classics Confidential folks  interview Katie Billotte:

The incipit of a piece in the Daily Mail:

Boris Johnson risked more confrontation with David Cameron yesterday by saying he would be prepared to serve as prime minister.

Asked where he would be in 2020, he compared himself to an ancient Roman consul who freely gave up his dictatorial powers: ‘I will have returned to my plough,’ said London’s mayor.

But he then said he would serve ‘if like Cincinnatus I was summoned from my plough’.

• via: Boris Johnson says he would be prepared to be PM as he calls for EU referendum (Daily Mail)

… nice use of the future perfect there too …

From the Daily Echo:

A GROUND-BREAKING archaeological search for an ancient Roman road starts in Purbeck next week.

Experts will excavate part of the straight footpath running through Sandford Heath, known locally as the Roman Road.

Historians hope this dig will, once and for all, answer whether the thoroughfare visible today was constructed over an ancient road built during Dorset’s Roman occupation.

Project officer Ben Buxton said: “We will excavate part of the old road near Sandford, Wareham, to find out if there are any clues to its origins hidden below the surface.

“The Roman Road runs between Sandford and Station Road, Holton Heath. It is an old route which may have been part of the main road between Wareham and Poole in the 18th century, but there is the exciting possibility that a Roman road really does run underneath or nearby.”

Historians believe such a road could have been built by the Roman army during the conquest of Dorset, not long after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43.

If a road existed, it probably connected a known Roman fort near Wimborne to a possible fort at Wareham, say experts.

Local archaeologist Lilian Ladle will be leading a number of volunteers on the two-week dig, starting next Monday.

On October 15, from 11am until 4pm, the site will be opened to the public, with craft activities for youngsters.

The dig is a short walk from the entrance to Sandford Heath, Station Road, Holton Heath, where parking is possible.

• via: Archaeologists in Roman Road dig at Sandford Heath

Some interesting stuff yesterday:

• Herculaneum Society AGM Meeting October 4, 2011 j-t-berry@hotmail.co.uk (Jo Berry)
• 10/3/11 PHD comic: ‘P is for Produce’ October 4, 2011
• Greek responses to Symes material on the London market October 4, 2011 David Gill
• The Diolkos Petition October 4, 2011 dpettegrew
• South Italian Pots in Australia October 4, 2011 David Gill
• Chasing Aphrodite at the Walters October 4, 2011 Cultural Property Observer
• Constructing Latin Sentences 5 October 4, 2011 admin
• The Millet-Eaters of the Roman Empire October 4, 2011 Kristina Killgrove
• Etruscan grammar – The nouns and verbs and everything October 4, 2011 Glen Gordon
• MITHRIDATES, MASTER OF LANGUAGES.