VETERES: Nicholas Hammond

I should have mentioned this in the David Grene piece. When I originally envisioned this blog (actually, it was originally supposed to be a magazine, but more on that later), I thought it would be a good thing to have a semi-regular (i.e. when I found stuff) feature on the lives of the Classicists who have gone before and have "completed their bibliographies", as one might say. Hence the epithet 'veteres'.

Nicholas Hammond (who died in March, 2001)  was what might be called a "Classicist's Classicist", being the co-editor of one edition of the Cambridge Ancient History and the Oxford Classical Dictionary as well as the author of several other works. But what's even more interesting about him is his service during WWII, which is the stuff of Indiana Jones-type movies. Here's one of the nicer obituaries you'll ever read in the Guardian ...

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 8:42:47 PM::
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TTT:  Milman Parry

Harvard Univesity's Library Notes  (November, 2002) has an interview with David Elmer, the assistant curator of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature. In the interview, he gives a nice overview of Parry's work with oral literature and what is going on with the collection. Read more ...

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 4:25:09 PM::
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VETERES: David Grene

David Grene was a prominent Classicist at the University of Chicago who passed away in September, 2002. The University of Chicago put out an excellent obituary which gives good insight into the life of the man whose translations of Greek tragedy and Herodotus have been standard fare in and out of academia for decades. Read more ...

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 4:18:18 PM::
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VARIA: Teacher Tributes

It is clear the personal divinities of the rogueclassicist do much to drive interesting little tidbits to his computer monitor. Just now there arrived, e.g., a page from the University of Milwaukee, which a couple of years ago was celebrating its sesquicentennial and asked for submissions of tributes to teachers who had influence UM graduates. There aren't a lot there, but the majority, it seems, are either Latin or Classics teachers  Read more ...

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 4:13:27 PM::
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NUNTII: NJCL ... the view from Indianapolis

The Indianapolis Star is the latest newspaper to wade in with coverage of the NJCL. Congrats to Sharon Gibson, who is clearly going above and beyond for 'the cause'.

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 4:07:12 PM::
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NUNTII: More National Junior Classical League News

This morning's research for Explorator turned up a couple of more items related to the NJCL:

The Herald-Democrat (why don't news sites put the name of their city on the page??) reports "Sherman High School senior Jill Reddish earned second place in Greek Life and Literature at the recent National Junior Classical League competition held in San Antonio ..."

The Victoria (Texas) Advocate waxes,  "A creative approach to promoting the Latin language and classical history earned the Memorial High School Junior Classical League a national award in early August ..."

I wonder what it would take to get the NJCL the same sort of television coverage as the National Spelling Bee. I doubt TSN (the Sports Network up here in Canada) would cover it, but at least we could get bumper clips on Headline News, no?

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:24:28 AM::
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TTT: Roman Invasion of Britain

Dana Huntley, "The Coming of Rome"

In this article culled from British Heritage, the author argues that the Roman invasion of Britain  "represented a turning point which was no less significant than William the Conqueror's victory ten centuries later."  A nice summary of the impact, if you don't mind wading through the popups.

::Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:17:05 AM::
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