THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem vii idus apriles

• ludi Megalesia (day 4)
• 303 A.D. -- martyrdom of Calliopus at Pompeiopolis
• 310 A.D. -- martyrdom of Peleusius at Alexandria

5:35:11 AM    

AUDIO: Father Foster

Well, even if I can't get my email to go out, at least the high speed component of this network I'm trying to set up means I can get Father Foster rather more efficiently. This week's edition seems to be a continuation of sorts of last week's. Most of it has to do with assorted Latin antiphons, including Father Foster's take on Ubi Caritas, and when they're sung during Holy Week. Veronica is relatively silent for much of this one ...

Past programs available at the Latin Lover website.

5:21:38 AM    

CHATTER: The Passion ... Maybe

Okay. This is just plain stoooooooooooooooopid and bad reporting. A piece just flies into my mailbox which suggests there was a symposium on the Passion which included participation by a Classicist (Mark Clark). I'm all excited because I've been waiting for ages for a Classicist to get some press coverage on this. Instead, this is the coverage from the Sun Herald:

Recent public interest over the movie inspired scholars at the University of Southern Mississippi to organize "Perspective on the Passion." The symposium, held Tuesday night at the USM-Gulf Coast campus in Long Beach, touched on the influence of the Passion - the event, not the movie - in theology, history and Western art.

"We're pleased to see so many people from the community come to this, which is what we're trying to do with programs of special interest like this," said Allan Eickelmann, who moderated the discussion and was one of the panelists.

The public outnumbered the students and scholars. About 100 attended.

"I am a Sunday school teacher, and, of course, we have discussed the Passion, so I wanted to know if I could learn more," said Elton Buchanan of Bay St. Louis.

Lucy Reagan, a Long Beach nurse, said "a couple of the statements were provocative," but "we need to be open to other viewpoints."

Classicist Mark Clark and medieval historian Phyllis Jestice, both associate professors from the USM campus in Hattiesburg, were joined by Eickelmann, a religion instructor from the Coast campus, and by the Rev. Julian Gordy, a Lutheran minister from Ocean Springs.

"The problem for modern thinkers," said Gordy, "is that each gospel has a different take on the Passion account.

"For the first 1,000 years of Christianity, the suffering of Jesus was hardly emphasized at all. He was thought of as giving his life as a sacrifice in the way a Marine runs up a hill and volunteers to take out a machine gun nest. Not until later did the Passion of Jesus gain prominence."

That's where it ends! No disrespect intended for Rev. Gordy, but don't you think if you had attended a symposium which included someone who knew something about the ancient Romans and maybe someone who knew something about Medieval stuff that their opinions of things might actually be "news" in light of how the Passion has generally been covered? Is the big news that the public outnumbered the students? Methinks a reporter didn't stick around to get the full story ... or perhaps they're just incompetent. Or perhaps their editor is.

5:12:49 AM    

CHATTER: Another Greek Precedent

As I struggle to find documentation on how to get my D-Link 704UP Router to allow SMTP mail to go out, I found this piece from the Battalion somewhat apropos:

A Greek king, held captive by his enemies in the fifth century B.C., shaved the head of a trusted servant and tattooed a secret message on his bare scalp. Once the servant's hair had grown over the tattoo, the king sent him back to friendly territory, where his head was once again shaved to reveal the secret message. Why the servant didn't just memorize the message is anyone's guess.

This ancient story, recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus, is one of the earliest documented uses of a technique called data-hiding. 2,500 years later, data-hiding has evolved into a high-tech science with enormous implications for the future of digital technology.

As digital technology has enabled consumers to freely copy and share copyrighted work, copyright holders have recognized data-hiding as a means of controlling the distribution of their work. [...]

Of course ... data-hiding has been a principle of computer manuals for the last couple of decades ...

4:59:19 AM    

CHATTER: Julius Caesar's Lament

A piece in the Christian Science Monitor on Theo Epstein -- general manager of the Boston Red Sox and still (I think) the youngest to hold such a position in professional baseball (he's 30ish now) -- includes a quote which is a nice take off on Julius Caesar's lament:

"Everyone was making so much of him being young," Leslie Epstein says. "I said, 'What's all the fuss about? When Alexander the Great was Theo's age, he was already general manager of the world.' "

4:51:38 AM    

CHATTER: Homeric Reference

I'm genuinely not sure why, but this 'graph from a piece in the Globe and Mail about a documentary about Canadian musicians who are not (yet?) famous caught my eye and seemed worthy of posting:

But, as this lovely series tells us, it's fine to be famous on Queen West and its equivalent in other Canadian cities. In terms of integrity and the appreciation of the local audience anywhere, the solace of the community matters more than any silly sort of fame. I was reminded of some lines by the poet Patrick Kavanagh. He writes about a local, tedious battle between two farmers in his parish and concludes, ". . . Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind. He said: I made The Iliad from such A local row. Gods make their own importance."

4:40:57 AM