#Thelxinoe ~ Classics News for September 2, 2020

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist

Hodie est a.d. IV Non. Sept. 2772 AUC ~ 15 Metageitnion in the fourth year of the 699th Olympiad

In the News

Greek/Latin News

Public Facing Classics

Fresh Bloggery

Fresh Podcasts

TItle: The Case of the Caesarian [sic] Quote. Did Julius Caesar actually say: “I could kill you faster, then I could threaten to kill you?” It’s on the internet. So it has to be true. Right? Rob, from the Historical Detective Agency tries to find the truth.

This edition of Staging the Archive was recorded in August 2020, in which Shivaike Shah and Fran Amewudah discuss their latest TORCH-funded project – reinventing and reimagining their successful 2018 student production of Medea with an all-BAME cast. They are interviewed by Avery Willis Hoffman (Program Director – Park Avenue Armory), who appeared in a student Medea herself in 2002.

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. Steele explained how the Roman Republican military was far from invincible. Indeed what is so striking from this period is how many devastating defeats the Romans suffered in the process – from Heraclea to Cannae. What made the Romans so extraordinary, however, was their mindset: the Roman civic ethos that was ingrained in its citizens from childhood. Steele explained how the household farm served as an ‘incubator’ for habituating citizens to Roman virtue, which in turn ensured that citizens remained willing to serve even in the wake of catastrophic military defeats. In short, it was these part-time ‘soldier farmers’ that became the nucleus of antiquity’s most famous empire.

In this episode Dr Andrew Ollerton and Dr Chee-Chiew Lee delve further into her research into persecution and what it means to take risks in the Gospel of John. Dr Chee-Chiew Lee is Associate Professor in New Testament and Senior Director of Programme…

The fabulous Adrian Goldsworthy celebrates the release of his new book by joining us for an in-depth discussion on Philip and Alexander.

In the following podcast, you’ll hear the edited audio of Sienna’s live Instagram interview with Tamsin Shasha from Actors of Dionysus, a theatre company who reinterpret and perform Ancient Greek mythology. Tamsin shares her experiences of art-making during lockdown and gives us an idea of what we can expect from Actors of Dionysus in the future.

From the 6th century BCE, philosophy was used to make sense of the world – including astronomy, mathematics, politics, ethics, metaphysics and aesthetics. But why did philosophy flourish in Greek culture? How were the great philosophers received in their own time? And how did it influence Islam, communism and even the theories of Sigmund Freud? Rob Weinberg puts the big questions about history’s biggest thinkers to Professor Angie Hobbs at the University of Sheffield.

 

Book Reviews

Dramatic Receptions

Professional Matters

Alia

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it thunders today, it portends discord among the common folk.

… 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)

Published by David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist

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