EXHIBITION: Coming of Age in Ancient Greece

An Explorator reader (thanks UB!) sent me a link for an exhibition reviewed in Explorator a few weeks ago. The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College is hosting Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood From the Classical Past and has put up a nice companion website. While they don't show everything in the exhibition (obviously), each page at the site does have an image of at least one of the artifacts from the show (they don't enlarge, darn it!). The Resources page is definitely worth a look for those who like looking at pots and the like and there is a good selection of ancient quotations about childhood to which you can also add your own (properly cited, of course). Last, but not least, if you've got some time to kill, there are three flash-based jigsaw puzzles based on items from the exhibition (Medea's Children is kind of difficult, by the way, if you're lacking coffee and full of antihistamines). Enjoy!

::Friday, August 29, 2003 8:03:52 PM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

INSCRIPTION DU JOUR

"courtesy"

Again, we're rooting around in the legal documents (i.e. wax tablets) of the Sulpicii found at Pompeii (TSulp 12), this time to one dating from August 29, some time in the early 40's (Gregory Rowe offers 40, 43 or 44 A.D.):

original text:

 [ ] 
 [ ]A[ ] 
 IN BASIL[ ] ANTE CVRAM 
 HORA PRIMA HS MM DARI 
 STIPVL[ ]TVS EST L LVCRETIVS 
 FIRMVS MILES COHORTIS X[ ]II 
 | M SAL[ ]IRMI SPO[ ]ONDIT 
 L AEL[ ]NVS 
  
 ACTVM CAPVAE IIII K SEPT 
 T AXIO T MVSSIDIO POLLIANO COS

restored:

[------] 
[-]A[---]
in basil[ica] ante cur(i)am 
hora prima HS MM dari 
stipul[a]tus est L(ucius) Lucretius 
Firmus miles cohortis X[I]II
(cohortis) M(arci) Sal[vi F]irmi spo[p]ondit 
L(ucius) Ael[ius Repenti?]nus 
Actum Capuae IIII K(alendas) Sept(embres)  
T(ito) Axio T(ito) Mussidio Polliano co(n)s(ulibus)

translation:

... in the Basilica in front of the Curia at the first hour, Lucius Lucretius Firmus, a soldier in Marcus Salvus Firmus' Thirteenth Cohort, stipulated that he promised Lucius Aelius Repentinus 2000 sesterces.

Transacted at Capua, August 29 in the consulships of Titus Axius and Titus Mussidius Pollianus.

commentary:

Gregory Rowe clearly has a different version of this inscription than that which is available from the EDH. He prefaces his translation with:

Bonded commitment to appear made by Lucius Aelius Valentinus ...

In line 8 he also restores Lucius Aelius Valentinus as opposed to the EDH's L. Aelius Repentinus (I should have noted in our previous installment from the TSulp archive that Rowe did the same thing there).

In other words, he is suggesting the inscription began vadimonium factum ... and that this document is what is best described as a 'promise to appear' in a civil case (what we might loosely call "bail"). It seems likely that the dispute centres on the ownership and/or purchase of the slave boy Felix mentioned in the previous inscription from the archive.

An excellent brief article on vadimonium is:

Ernest Metzger, "Evidence for Ladungsvadimonium"

Dr. Metzger, of the University of Aberdeen, is also the editor of IusCivile.com, which is arguably the most extensive collection of Roman Law resources available on the www.

further bibliography at the EDH ...

::Friday, August 29, 2003 7:28:06 PM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

NUNTII: What Would Jesus Speak?

"Paleojudaica" has alerted me to a short essay in Forward waxing on what language Jesus would have spoken. It can best be summarized as Aramaic, with small Greek and still less Latin.

Read the essay ...

::Friday, August 29, 2003 7:12:42 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

REVIEW: Ernst Junger, Storm of Steel

While the tome under question is a novel about WWI, there is a passing reference to the Iliad and Odyssey for comparison purposes. It might be useful in a complit environment.

Read the full review in the Telegraph

::Friday, August 29, 2003 7:03:22 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem iv kalendas septembres

• 29 A.D. -- beheading of John the Baptist (traditional date)
• 70 A.D. -- Romans enter the Temple at Jerusalem (ditto)
• 112 A.D. -- death and deification of Ulpia Marciana, sister of the emperor Trajan

::Friday, August 29, 2003 6:51:40 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

TTT: Parallels Between 'Our Times' and Diocletian's

Daypopping just came across an interesting article (.pdf) on the political parallels between the time of Diocletion and the present day. The source is another political magazine, Ideas on Liberty, and the author relies mostly on Will Durrant and M. Rostovtzeff, so you can probably figure much of it out already.

Harold B. Jones, "Homeland Security Circa AD 285" Ideas on Liberty (April, 2003)

::Friday, August 29, 2003 6:46:41 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

TTT: Origins of Labor (or Labour) Day

The "About.com" has a guest feature by William Harris on the origins of Labor Day. Interestingly for all concerned, there isn't a thing Classical about it and the North American/Australian incarnation dates back only to the 1880's or so.

::Friday, August 29, 2003 6:34:36 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central

NUNTII: Macedonian Cemetery Found

An Explorator reader (thanks LA!) has passed along news of what has been found at the dig at Archontiko (near Pella), Greece, this summer. The most spectacular finds, which I hope we'll be hearing much, much more about include burials of 80 or so Macedonian warriors, adorned with gold, along with their wives. The cemetery dates from the second half of the sixth-century B.C.. And apparently there are 300+ other (unlooted) burials there as well! Read more in EKathimerini ...

::Friday, August 29, 2003 6:15:27 AM::
Comment on this post @ Classics Central