N.S.Gill's Ancient History Blog January 2007 Archive

The calendar in Rome used notations like "VIII ID FEB" to stand for the 6th of February, or in Roman terms -- 8 days before the Ides of February. ... Read More

When all the words you hear are new and confusing, or when those around you put old words to strange purposes, a grounding in etymology may help. Take the word ... Read More

Lysander commanded the victorious Spartans at Aegospotami, in 405 B.C., near the end of the Peloponnesian War. He was credited with the victory over the Athenians. After the allies of ... Read More

"Why study classics?" is such an open-ended question that to get 321 pages that actually stick to the point -- more or less -- is pretty impressive. That Simon Goldhill ... Read More

In his blog about the discovery of a mass grave for men and horses in Normandy, which is speculated to be part of the worship of the Gallic goddess of ... Read More

Wolf with Romulus and Remus © Clipart.com Archaeologists working on the Palatine Hill and the Forum in Rome, have "found a vaulted space decorated with frescoes, niches and seashells." They think ... Read More

Today's quote is from Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher born in Turkey in about 55 A.D. Epictetus studied with the Stoic teacher Musonius Rufus. He was a slave under the Emperor ... Read More

Hera was the queen of the Greek gods. Her Roman equivalent was Juno. Hera was the sister and wife of the king of the gods Zeus. Hera spent much of ... Read More

Alcibiades image © Clipart.com The Rogue Classicist noted an interesting article, by Brent T. Ranalli, in The Globalist, showing parallels between the modern war in Iraq and the Athenian-led ... Read More

© Clipart.com A small group of Greeks, known as Ellinais, won legal recognition for their religion last year and is now working to win back their place of worship -- ... Read More

Nefertiti © Clipart.com The Johns Hopkins University Gazette reveals, in its article Archaeologists Bring Egyptian Excavation to the Web, that pictures taken by Jay VanRensselaer and descriptions of JHU's ... Read More

Paul Friedlander's 1941 article, "The Greek Behind Latin," shows that some Latin-based grammatical terms seem opaque simply because they are direct translations of Greek terms. "Case" and "declension" are ... Read More

Words and Ideas, by William J. Dominik, combines word building and etymology with Greco-Roman culture. It even explains the oddities of spelling conventions and why a name like Aeschylus is ... Read More

While Classics departments at universities around the globe find their programs reduced, combined with other departments, or canceled, classics and ancient history are undergoing a revival in popularity. The (Madison, ... Read More

A chorus of similarly costumed men on the dancing floor ("orchestra") beneath the stage for the duration of the performance, observing and commenting on the action of the two or ... Read More

Today's quote is from Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher born in Turkey in about 55 A.D. Epictetus studied with the Stoic teacher Musonius Rufus. He was a slave under the Emperor ... Read More

© Clipart.com On this day in A.D. 379, Theodosius was installed as emperor. Under Emperor Valentinian I, Flavius Theodosius had been stripped of command and exiled to Spain. His father ... Read More

© Clipart.com The Greek goddess Athena was born from the head of her father, the king of the gods, Zeus. In Homer's Iliad, Athena is very active on the side ... Read More

On February 1, 2007, the latest book by Lindsey Davis, author of the popular Falco series set in Flavian Rome, will be launched in the UK, published by Century; its ... Read More

There is an online Latin tutorial in 12 lessons, from the National Archives, UK, that will allow people to read relatively modern documents (from 1086 to 1733) written in Latin. ... Read More

Odysseus © Clipart.com The final destination of Odysseus at the end of his Odyssey was his homeland, Ithaca (Ithaka), an island. People have long wondered exactly where it was. The "Paliki ... Read More

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia From James Macdonald at Flickr - Attribution-NoDerivs License. Galla Placidia was the daughter of Theodosius the Great (379-395) and his second wife, Galla, the daughter of Valentinian ... Read More

Octavian © Kirk Johnson On this day in 27 B.C., Octavian was well on the road to becoming the first emperor. He was starting his 7th consulship at the time of the ... Read More

Catullus © Clipart.com In his blog Valentine's Impending, the Rogue Classicist quotes from a psychologist's article on the history of Valentine's Day and from a classicist's. In her article the classicist, Barbara ... Read More

The quotations of January come from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. It is believed that it was a student of Epictetus, Flavius Arrian, rather than the master himself, who actually wrote ... Read More

In Horses, Horseshoes, & the Great Stirrup Controversy, Melissa Snell, Medieval History Guide, writes, "Did you know that the most significant advances in horseshoeing took place during the Middle Ages? ... Read More

Demeter (the Roman Ceres) is best known in connection with her daughter Persephone (the Roman Proserpina). Persephone, Demeter's daughter by Zeus, was abducted by Hades, but for a long time ... Read More

Caesar character photo © HBO. Comparing with the sculpture of Caesar on the right, Ciarán Hinds seems a good choice physically. © clipart.com The second 12-episode season of Rome begins on Sunday ... Read More

The movie 300: March to Glory will be coming out soon -- March 9, 2007. This movie glorifies the Spartans for their self-sacrifice despite the insurmountable odds at the Battle ... Read More

Nathan Bauman has been writing notes a book at a time on the Odyssey. He has finally finished. See Brief Thoughts on the Odyssey Books X-XXIV and Books I-IX. In ... Read More

Baths of Caracalla © Clipart.com The Montreal Gazette's article Old Is New: When at a spa, do as the Romans did looks at spas around the world that use ancient techniques. Elemental ... Read More

Irene Hahn reviews the third in the trilogy Ross Leckie wrote about Carthage. Earlier in the series, Leckie negatively portrayed both Hannibal and Scipio. Carthage features their bastard sons. The ... Read More

Central Florida News reports in an AP story, Ancient Roman Road Found in Netherlands, that a Dutch train company discovered what archaeologists believe to be part of an ancient Roman ... Read More

Today's quote is from Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher born in Turkey in about 55 A.D. Epictetus studied with the Stoic teacher Musonius Rufus. He was a slave under the Emperor ... Read More

Bread and Circuses blogger Adrian Murdoch writes about a U.S. congressman who knows his Imperial Roman history. John Culberson of Texas has been handing out coins from the rein of ... Read More

Caesar © Clipart.com After Caesar returned from Egypt to Rome in 46 B.C. he, as Pontifex Maximus -- the highest priestly office -- fixed the calendar. The calendar was the province of ... Read More

Do you know what fractal, fraction, fracious, fracture, fragile, fragment, and frail have in common? They all come the Latin verb frangere 'to break' or from Latin nouns ... Read More

Penelope and Telemachus © Clipart.com Penelopiad (2005) is an almost satirical version of the story of Odysseus -- best known from the Odyssey attributed to Homer -- but from the perspective of ... Read More