Pop Classics: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum dir. Richard Lester, 1966.

History of the Ancient World: Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria.

History of the Ancient World: “Rulers Ruled By Women”: An Economic Analysis of the Rise and Fall of Women’s Rights in Ancient Sparta.

The Telegraph ponders combining various traits in former prime ministers to create the  perfect one … inter alia, ecce:

Harold Macmillan’s unflappability. It is essential for a prime minister to show grace under pressure and no one demonstrated this quality better than Macmillan, also known as “Supermac”. During the battle of the Somme he was severely wounded in the buttock and leg while leading a charge across No-man’s-land. After dragging himself to a shell hole, he passed the time until he could be rescued by reading Aeschylus’s Prometheus, in Greek, a copy of which he happened to have in his pocket. Whenever the Germans advanced he would stop reading and lie “doggo”, pretending to be dead. Once they had gone he would resume his reading.

• via: How to construct the perfect prime minister (Telegraph)

Martin Conde has a pdf of an item in today’s Il Messaggero (which doesn’t seem to be online) commenting on the discovery/work on a huge mosaic found deep in the bowels of the Oppian Hill  which depicts (maybe) five ‘mysterious muses’ …  it seems likely this is related to last summer’s find (also mentioned by Martin Conde): Apollo and the Muses Mosaic Found on the Oppian. I really can’t understand why this isn’t getting any English press coverage …