CHATTER: Romans on Ice

Is it just me or has the name "Roman" suddenly become one of the more common names in the world of hockey? Vide (some of these might be in farm systems):

Roman Turek (goalie, Calgary Flames)

Roman Rozakov (defense, Calgary Flames ... now in the minors)

Roman Cechmanek (goalie, L.A. Kings)

Roman Hamrlik (defence, N.Y. Islanders)

Roman Simicek (centre, Minnesota Wild)

Roman Tvrdon (apparently with the Washington Capitals)

Roman Lyashenko (center, N.Y. Rangers ... committed suicide last summer)

There's probably more... I'm sure I can come up with a similar list for football (American).

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 8:54:13 PM::
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CHATTER: ClassCon in Nepal

It's always interesting to see Classical references where one least expects them. In this case, it's in a (difficult to read) Nepalese OpEd piece all about the disagreements between the King and various political parties. Inter alia, we read:

And in our own case, leaders of almost each and every party, big or small, have their own records of forcing their lesser activists to toe the lines carved by them, basically, to serve their own individual or group interests. What they call party politburo or central executive committee of the party concerned is nothing but a clique which is designed to dictate their own individual terms of interest among the lesser coterie in the organization. And one's genuflecting before the top hierarchy and obeying it without any questioning tantamount to replaying the subservient and helpless role of the ancient Dacian slaves who used to be killed in sacrifice during the infamous Roman Holiday.

I'll resist comparisons to the Canadian parliamentary system ... maybe.

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 8:30:19 PM::
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NUNTII: Artists'Visions/Versions of Ancient Sardis

The Harvard Gazette has an interesting piece on an exhibition at the Fogg Museum devoted to artistic renderings, scholarly and otherwise, of ancient Sardis. There's a few photos in the piece, of which this 1838 etching by Thomas Allom is easily the best one (I'm always a sucker for 19th century paintings of ancient cities):

In any event, the article is definitely worth a look ...

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 8:16:47 PM::
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RESOURCE: Agence Photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux

The Archaeolinks newsletter brought this one to my attention. It's sort of a photographic archive of assorted national museums in France. Everything is in French, of course, but there are some really nice images. If you'd just like to browse through the Greek/Roman/Etruscan stuff, first click here; beside the word "Fonds" there's a drop down menu thing ... select the first one (antiquites grecques etc.), then click the "Envoyer" button. You'll get a page with the first of 500+ images, some very well known. Clicking on the image will give you a page with the info about the image (in French, of course) and clicking on the image on that page will take you to a larger image.

There are also options to create personal albums, which might be potentially useful. Í'm sure there's a lot more to play with here ...

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 8:10:56 PM::
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REVIEWS: The Latest From BMCR

Bianca-Jeanette Schroeder, Jens-Peter Schroeder (edd.), Studium declamatorium.
Untersuchungen zu Schuluebungen und Prunkreden von der Antike bis zur
Neuzeit. Beitraege zur Altertumskunde 176.

Aronadio Francesco, Procedure e verita in Platone (Menone, Cratilo,
Repubblica). Elenchos, vol. 38.

E. Sapouna Sakellaraki, J.J. Coulton, I.R. Metzger, The Fort at Phylla,
Vrachos: Excavations and Researches at a Late Archaic Fort in Central
Euboea. With contributions by A. Sarpaki and S. Wall-Crowther. BSA Suppl.
33.

Shaun Tougher (ed.), Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond.

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 7:58:18 PM::
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THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem xvii kalendas novembres

• 1861 -- birth of J.B. Bury, author of History of the Later Roman
  Empire, among other 'standard' texts

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:51:49 AM::
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CHATTER: Noted in Passing

With the silver anniversary of John Paul's tenure being celebrated, at least one news source has noted that his official motto apparently is Totus tuus ego sum. I think it really is just Totus Tuus (it's a shortened version of a much longer thing having to do with his dedication to Mary) but surely (and possibly ironically) this is one of those things to suggest to people when they send you that email "Hi, my fiance and I wanted to inscribe something in Latin in our wedding rings? Can you help?"

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:33:43 AM::
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ORIGINS: Rugby

A few weeks ago we learned that bocce was on the list of sports purporting to hail from Roman times. This a.m. I learn that we can add rugby to the list as well (note to self: compile a list of sports which claim to have Roman origins):

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Rugby, edited by Richard Bath, says the game originated with the Roman Empire and a game called Harpastum. It is said that the Romans imported it from China, Japan or ancient Greece. It was like rugby in that it involved two teams who tried to carry a leather ball over their opponent's goal line.

Of course, that "from China, Japan, or ancient Greece" thing makes one immediately skeptical, but it does appear that Harpastum did resemble, at least superficially, rugby and/or American and/or Canadian football. The Roman Ball Games website has an excellent page on this one, for folks wanting to delve into the matter further (if you need additional incentive, the site does have some excellent photos of various Roman ball games as well).

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:24:53 AM::
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(P)REVIEW: Metamorphoses

The Arizona Repertory Theater is putting on a production of Mary Zimmerman's take on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Tucson Weekly has the scoop ...

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:11:49 AM::
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CHATTER: Roman Numerals II

Speaking of Roman numerals, I strongly suspect a piece on the KRT Wire is exhibiting lack of knowledge of same. It's a story about an Iraqi father and son team who were arrested in some sort of scheme to build patrol boats for Iraq. Here's some of the details:

The deal was arranged between 2000 and 2002 when an Iraqi-run state company hired the elder Yakou to oversee construction. The deal was for him to be paid $8.85 million for the boats and just over $2 million for electronic equipment. The boats were to be built in Baghdad.

Then towards the end we read:

He also gave agents copies of contracts, engine specifications, blueprints and a table of payments in Arabic with Roman numerals, dated June 26, 2003.

Somehow, I just don't think those millions of dollars were expressed in Roman numerals ... perhaps a Times New Roman font ...

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:08:36 AM::
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CHATTER: Roman Numerals

There's an episode of the Simpsons (the one where the Shelbyvillians steal Springfield's lemon tree) where Bart's teacher is attempting to teach the class Roman numerals, during which she says something like "If you don't know Roman numerals, how will you know what year major motion pictures were made?" Later in the same episode, Bart must use his (non)knowledge of said numerals to escape from a tiger feeding area, which has Roman numerals on the doors. A piece of  paper taped to one of the doors warns that the only door that he can leave by is number 7; all the others have man/Bart- eating tigers behind them. Of course, Bart didn't pay attention to Mrs. Crabapple's lesson, but he figures it out "Rocky III plus Rocky IV ... Rocky VII! Adrian's Revenge!" (or something like that). In any event, that episode is a nice summary of what most folks think Roman numerals are used for, besides designating SuperBowl games. Today, however, we learn of another one in passing in an article about advertising in the television industry:

"The controversy went away," Solberg said. "We see a similar pattern with 'Nip/Tuck.' We're not going to lower our CPMs." (CPM is the cost per thousand, a ratio used to determine how much the advertiser must spend to reach 1,000 people. The M stands for the Roman numeral for 1,000.)

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:00:27 AM::
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NUNTII: Nazi Loot

One of the recurring themes in my "explorator" newsletter is the pursuit of art purloined by the Nazis during or in the wake of WWII. Usually the art involved is rather later than one would call "Classical", but in today's Scotsman there is a story of Nazi plunder with a Classical connection. The initial background is the 'artistic statement' of David Blaine, who is sitting in a plexiglass box by Tower Bridge, his girlfriend loyally standing nearby. His girlfriend's father is the focus of the piece:

At the heart of it is Manon von Gerkan’s grandfather, Arnim von Gerkan, whose son Meinhard is Manon’s father. A specialist in Greek and Roman architecture, Professor Arnim von Gerkan - a precocious student born to German gentry - found himself travelling as one of many archaeologists researching historic sites on the Italian and Grecian peninsulas in the decade before the Second World War.

But as the Nazi grip took hold of Germany (and later Europe), Von Gerkan was inevitably and irretrievably pulled into the Reich conspiracy to plunder the occupied territories of their priceless, ancient works of art. From Athens to Florence to Rome, nothing was too precious for the Nazis. And so it was that Von Gerkan - who was 84 when he died in Hamburg in 1969 - came under Allied suspicion as one of the influential figures involved in the German "burglary" of Europe’s culture.

In dusty boxes of files in an anonymous warehouse a few miles from Washington DC is a list of names referred to by experts as the Red List. It is essentially page after page of badly typed names of leading Nazis and art-world figures - SS generals among them - investigated by the Allies after the Third Reich had collapsed.

Von Gerkan’s name is on this list, which was highly classified until just five years ago. His name was included by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA. "It’s the list of people the Allies compiled in their search for those who had a hand in the looting of artefacts," says Nancy Yeide, a specialist at the National Gallery in Washington.

Read the rest ...

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 4:44:04 AM::
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BULLETIN BOARD: Recent Postings

Jobs:

UOttawa: Latin Literature

Thornloe: Generalist (tenure track)

McGill: Roman Historian/Generalist (tenure track)

McGill: John McNaughton Chair in Classics

UofT: Hellenist/Generalist (CLA)

... all jobs (use the calendar on the jobs page!)

The APA has also posted its job listings for October ...

Events:

CFP:"Persia and the Greeks: Reactions and Receptions

CFP: UNB Ancient History Colloquium

... all events (use the calendar on the Events page!)

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 4:34:08 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

4.00 p.m. |DISCC| Atlantis Uncovered
"Examine what is known about Atlantis and explore the
unanswered questions to the biggest archaeological mystery
ever. "

DISCC   =  Discovery Channel (Canada)

::Thursday, October 16, 2003 4:12:12 AM::
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