EverythingLatin
Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labour; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead - Cicero 106 BC - 43 BC
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2,200 year old Roman Bronze Battering Ram found off the coast of Sicily
By Jennifer Nalewicki in Live Science,published 30/08/2024 Researchers have uncovered a bronze battering ram off the coast of Sicily. The weapon would have been used during the Battle of the Aegates between Rome and Carthage. A Roman battering ram found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea was used during an epic battle that unfolded more than 2,200…
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Roman Wall Blues
W.H. Auden Over the heather the wet wind blows,I’ve lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose. The rain comes pattering out of the sky,I’m a Wall soldier, I don’t know why. The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,My girl’s in Tungria; I sleep alone. Aulus goes hanging around her place,I don’t…
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Beware the Ides of March
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it – Gaius Iulius Caesar The Ides of March (15th) 44 BC, was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome by a group of disgruntled Senators, and is one of the most consequential dates in history, an event that…
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Medusa Misunderstood
Luciano Garbati, Medusa holding the head of Persues, 2008 To some, the Greek myth of Medusa is a nightmarish tale, one of madness, a demonic monster with snakes for hair and a glance that has a petrifying power, while others such as the Roman poet Ovid, have interpreted her as a wronged woman, a symbol…
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Midas in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Greed and Redemption
Ted Hughes 1930 -1998. Tales from Ovid, 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses, published by Faber and Faber Ltd 1997. Copyright Ted Hughes Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old…
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Sappho: Two new Poems discovered
Woman with Stylus, an ancient Roman fresco unearthed in Pompeii In the late 19th Century a series of excavations at an ancient rubbish dump in the city of Oxyrhynchus, around 100 miles south of Cairo, were undertaken that found some valuable papyrus scrolls that included a sizeable amount of long-lost poetry by the Greek poet…
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The Lewd, the Nude and the Rude: The Graffiti of Ancient Italy
Romans liked to scrawl their jokes, political opinions, wants and desires, complaints, insults, and their sometimes inane ramblings on the walls of communal toilets and private buildings. Both politicians and prostitutes would advertise there. Much like nowadays then, really. Their graffiti is usually bawdy, lewd, profane, and quite often vulgar, but at the same time…
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The Short Reign of Pertinax: Corruption and Assassination
Image Credit: Egisto Sani-Flickr Publius Helvius Pertinax was born of a fairly low status on the 1st August 126 AD. The son of a freed slave, he joined the legions, and after commanding in Syria, Britain, and earning distinction on the Danube and the Rhine during the invasion by German tribes in 169 AD, he found…
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Verism: Portraying Power and Ancestry
Heavily wrinkled, with sagging jowls and a thrusting jaw, the face of a Roman aristocrat stares back at us from the time of the late Republic, his countenance meaning to convey his seriousness of mind (gravitas) and the battle scars earned through a life of public and military service. The Veristic style (from the Latin verus meaning true)…
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Herculaneum’s Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri is the name given to a private house that was uncovered in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum. This town, along with nearby city of Pompeii, is perhaps best remembered for its destruction during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Because of this natural disaster, most, if not…
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