Hodie est Id. Sext. 2772 AUC ~ 24 Hekatombaion in the fourth year of the 699th Olympiad

In the News

• Researchers unlock secrets of the past with new international carbon dating standard | EurekAlert! Science News
• 600 Lebanese Heritage Gems Ravaged, UNESCO Mobilizes | Asharq AL-awsat
• Byzantine-Period Church with Colorful Mosaics Unearthed in Israel | Archaeology | Sci-News.com
• Louvre Abu Dhabi joins global research project to analyse ancient mummy portraits – The National
• Discovering the thermal baths of Lodi, here is the ancient Laus Pompeia – Culture – ilgiorno.it
• Excavation in progress at the tomb of Lazarus: “There are interesting elements”

Public Facing Classics

• How the Athenians would have handled the Lords | The Spectator

Fresh Bloggery

• A Moment of Hesitation: Reading Sophocles’ “Electra” Online – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• Laudator Temporis Acti: A One-Sided Account
• Laudator Temporis Acti: Earth to Earth
• Roman Times: Eros, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest with his glittering wings, depicted on a bronze lamp holder, 1st century BCE, at the Dallas Museum of Art
• Mixed up in White Supremacy: Commitments – Mixed up in Classics
• Ignoreland | Sphinx
• Endure Shame for the Sake of Friends: – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Numismatic News: About 3,000 BnF coins linked to Coin Hoards
• Thucydides | The Historian’s Hut
• 2nd Century Funerary Relief Of A Priest of The Magna Mater, Cybele | The Historian’s Hut
• Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: Maybe Time for British Archaeologists to Start telling it Like it IS.
• Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: You Wanna Buy Old Scrolls?

Fresh Podcasts

• ‎Nuntii Latini: diē decimō mēnsis Augustī on Apple Podcasts

Itinera in Mexicum nōn facienda; Carola Lam interdicta, Jacobus Lai comprehēnsus; Tumultūs Bērȳtiī; Comitia in Bielorussiā habita; Clādēs āeria in Indiā; Iōhannes Carolus exul.

• ‎The Ancients: ‘Killing for the Roman Republic’ on Apple Podcasts

In 281/280 BC, the Hellenistic King Pyrrhus ventured to southern Italy to aid the Italiote-Greek city of Tarentum against a rising power based in central Italy. This enemy was the Romans. Over the next 150 years this civilisation would rise to become the Mediterranean superpower, winning wars against the Carthaginians, the Antigonids, Seleucids, Ptolemies and various other enemies. But why were the Roman soldiers so effective? I was delighted to be joined by Dr Steele Brand who brilliantly answered this question.,,

• Not all things begin with the Greeks – a discussion with Professor Louise A. Hitchcock | Neos Kosmos

Louise A. Hitchcock is Professor in Archaeology, Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne and an expert on the Bronze Age and the Sea People. She knows  the Philistines, Babylonians, Hebrews and Phoenicians.

• ‎The Partial Historians: Episode 106 – Spoiler Alert on Apple Podcasts

We continue to follow the cause of our Roman Achilles–more formally known as Lucius Siccius Dentatus–in 455 BCE. Dentatus is truly the star of the this period of history from the perspective of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Dr G has a lot to say about that!

Book Reviews

• [BMCR] Stefan Brenne, Die Ostraka vom Kerameikos. Kerameikos, 20. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2018.
• [BMCR] Sophia Xenophontos, Brill’s companion to the reception of Plutarch. Brill’s companions to classical reception, volume 20. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
• [Classical Journal ~ PDF] Plautus: Casina 
• [Classical Journal ~ PDF] Anticipation and Anachrony in Statius’ Thebaid 
• [AJA] The Fortifications of Pompeii and Ancient Italy By Ivo van der Graaff. Oxford and New York: Routledge 2019.
• [AJA] Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth By Jodi Magness. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2019.
• [AJA] Archaeology and Urban Settlement in Late Roman and Byzantine Anatolia: Euchaïta-Avkat-Beyözü and Its Environment Edited by John Haldon, Hugh Elton, and James Newhard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2018. x

Dramatic Receptions

• Theatre Review: ‘Antigone in Ferguson’ by Theater of War Productions via Zoom | Maryland Theatre Guide

Alia

• The Agrarian Priesthood of Second Temple Judaism | Bible Interp
• Actium, 31 BC: the beginning of the end for Mark Antony and Cleopatra – HistoryExtra
• An ancient temple at a five-star location | Life | ekathimerini.com
• A Total War Saga: Troy Review – IGN
• If Odysseus had Instagram – The Washington Post

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

• Homeromanteion | Online Homeric Oracle
• Sortes Virgilianae (English)
• Sortes Virgilianae (Latin)
• Consult the Oracle at UCL

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it thunders today, it portends a plague for both humans and animals.

… adapted from the text and translation of:

Jean MacIntosh Turfa, The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar, in Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon (eds.), The Religion of the Etruscans. University of Texas Press, 2006. (Kindle edition)