rogueclassicism

THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

pridie nonas decembres

235 A.D. -- martyrdom of Barbara, patron saint of fireworks manufacturers

::Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:58:39 AM::
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REVIEW: HistFic

An excerpt from a 'roundup' of books in the Telegraph:

Although Gillian Bradshaw lives in England, her books used to be available only in America. At last they have arrived in the UK and are well worth seeking out. In Render Unto Caesar (St Martin's Press, £19.99) a young merchant from Alexandria goes to Rome to collect money owed him by a rich consul. The time is just after Cleopatra's defeat. Romans think Greeks are effete and Egyptians barbarians.

The resourceful hero faces disappointment and danger, but the adventure plot is less interesting than its setting. This is a fascinating, vivid evocation of daily life in the early Roman empire, its sights, sounds and smells, the food sold at the dawn market, the menu at a millionaire's dinner party, the filth and fleas in a doss-house and the inside of the barracks where the gladiators' existence is brutish and short.

::Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:45:53 AM::
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GOSSIP: What to do with a Classics Degree (sort of)

Why, date Gwyneth Paltrow of course:

Yesterday, in response to Lowdown's exclusive about Gwyneth Paltrow's likely pregnancy, the 31-year-old actress and her 26-year-old boyfriend, Coldplay front man Chris Martin, confirmed it to the world.
"Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin are pleased to confirm that they are expecting their first child next summer," Paltrow's publicist, Stephen Huvane, said in a terse public statement.

[...]

The father sounds like a standup guy. Martin, who has been press-shy about their romance, is the son of an accountant father and schoolteacher mother. He graduated with honors with a degree in ancient history from University College in London. According to a recent story in the Chicago Tribune, he worries about his receding hairline.
And unlike others in his line of work, he doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs.
"I don't do drugs because they lead to s- albums," he explained in a recent interview, "and I don't like what alcohol does to my personality."

Source ...

::Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:32:19 AM::
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CHATTER: Keep Your Eyes Open

Tonight is parent-teacher interview night, so there likely won't be an update to rogueclassicism until tomorrow a.m. ... something folks might want to keep their news eyes open for today is the decision of the IOC in regards to holding the shot put at Olympia ... it's the last hurdle and probably isn't really much of one, knowing how the IOC operates.

::Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:27:15 AM::
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REVIEW: Caligula

The Telegraph has a short review of Alan Massie, Caligula:

Anyone familiar with the early Roman Emperors - and Allan Massie is their best-known modern chronicler, having written a string of novels about them - will know that the Julio-Claudian dynasty was one of the most convoluted in the history of the planet. They intermarried at will, remarried at will and, instead of thinking up new names for their offspring, called them after Uncle Gaius or Auntie Julia. One glance at the family tree with which Massie prefaces his account of the ill-fated reign of the Emperor Caligula (AD 37-41) is enough to give a seasoned genealogist a headache.

So there are, inescapably, some longueurs in the opening chapters. "At the suggestion of her mother-in-law Antonia, the widow of the Emperor's brother, Germanicus' sister Julia Livilla was married to Tiberius' son Drusus." What is the Latin for "Get me out here"? But once Massie has done the preliminary spadework, he tells the story with his customary aplomb and intelligence.

More ...

::Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:19:51 AM::
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NUNTII: Shakeup at Yale (?)

A couple of departures from the Yale Classics department appears to be causing concern:

In a major faculty shakeup for the relatively small Classics Department, the University has tapped senior professors from the University of Texas at Austin and England's Oxford University. Meanwhile, two classics professors -- one of whom is already tenured at Yale -- have announced they will leave this summer for senior positions at Stanford University and the University of London.

Tenured classics professor Susanna Braund, who specializes in Latin literature, and classics professor Stephen Colvin, who specializes in Greek linguistics, will leave for Stanford and London, respectively. Newly recruited Texas professor Egbert Bakker specializes in Greek literature and Oxford professor Christina Kraus specializes in Greek and Latin literatures.

With fewer than 20 professors in the Yale Classics Department and just 22 junior and senior majors, these faculty appointments and departures are significant, Classics Director of Undergraduate Studies Michael Anderson said.

"As DUS, it does complicate the curriculum planning for next year," Anderson said. "But I think, given the balance of exiting faculty and entering faculty, we should be able to manage the necessary courses and still provide plenty of choice among courses for both classics majors and any students interested in classics."

Braund said she thinks "it must look bad" for the small department to see two professors leave at the same time.