Hodie est a.d. X kal. Ian. 2774 AUC ~ 19 Poseideon in the first year of the 700th Olympiad

In the News

• Unfinished Roman-era Statue Unearthed in Veria, Greece

In Case You Missed It

• Temple of Hercules Gaditanus where the god was worshipped by the ancient Greeks and Romans in the 9th century BC may have been discovered off the coast of Spain
• Israeli archaeologists find treasure trove among Mediterranean shipwrecks
• 2000-Year-Old Statues Found in Hellenic City of Blaundos
• Illegal excavations unearth Roman villa 

Public Facing Classics

• Boris and the Romans | Blog post by Mary Beard | The TLS

Fresh Bloggery

• Tis the Season to Get Your Cheese On – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• Two Article Wednesday | Archaeology of the Mediterranean World
• Saturnalia Woes? – The Philological Crocodile
• Singing While the House Burns Down – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Projet Coptos
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans
• Laudator Temporis Acti: Lucretius Mangled
• Virgil Reading The Aeneid To The Family Of Augustus, By Vincenzo Camuccini (c. 1771-1844) | The Historian’s Hut
• The Bullish Origin Myth For The Name “Italy” | The Historian’s Hut
• De ondergang van Marcus Caelius Rufus – Mainzer Beobachter
• Nabis, the Last King of Sparta, and His Torture Robot – Tales of Times Forgotten
• PaleoJudaica.com: St. Catherine’s Monastery in the news
• PaleoJudaica.com: More on the late-antique Caesarea shipwreck
• PaleoJudaica.com: Schiffman on Fraade’s Damascus Document commentary
• Domitianus (4): Galba – Mainzer Beobachter

Other Blog-like Publications

• Spectacular ancient treasure discovered at sea off the coast of Caesarea

Fresh Podcasts

• The Ancients: Hannibal’s Winter War on Apple Podcasts

It’s fair to say that winter battles weren’t commonplace in the ancient Mediterranean world. There is, however, one striking exception. A clash that occurred in mid/late December 218 BC, in northern Italy very close to the Po River. This clash was the Battle of the River Trebia, fought between the Roman consular army of Sempronius Longus and the conglomerate Carthaginian force under the leadership of the legendary Hannibal Barca. In this special podcast, Dr Eve MacDonald, Dr Louis Rawlings and Dr Adrian Goldsworthy talk you through the run up to this decisive winter clash, before delving into the details of the battle itself. From Hannibal and his weary, worn down force emerging from the Alps to Roman soldiers wading through the icy waters of the Trebia, sit back and enjoy as Eve, Louis and Adrian talk you through the story of Hannibal’s first great victory against the Roman Republic.

• In Our Time: The Hittites on Apple Podcasts

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire that flourished in the Late Bronze Age in what is now Turkey, and which, like others at that time, mysteriously collapsed. For the next three thousand years these people of the Land of Hatti, as they called themselves, were known only by small references to their Iron Age descendants in the Old Testament and by unexplained remains in their former territory. Discoveries in their capital of Hattusa just over a century ago brought them back to prominence, including cuneiform tablets such as one (pictured above) which relates to an agreement with their rivals, the Egyptians. This agreement has since become popularly known as the Treaty of Kadesh and described as the oldest recorded peace treaty that survives to this day, said to have followed a great chariot battle with Egypt in 1274 BC near the Orontes River in northern Syria…

Online Talks and Professional Matters

• See what’s happening today in Dr Pistone’s Online Classics Social Calendar
• SCS Calendar: Classics, Ancient History, and Classical Archaeology Webinars

Alia

• The new year once started in March—here’s why
• Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Greece, former UK culture minister says
• Snakes Were Used to Heal the Sick in Ancient Greece
• The Legendary Shield Of Achilles 

‘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 disease for the people, but not a serious one.

… 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)