ante diem iv idus septembres

• ludi Romani (day 6)
• 306 A.D. -- martyrdom of Metrodora, Menodora, and Nymphodora in Bithynia

I'm still trying to figure this one out ... from the Oregonian comes an account of a game of Strip Jeopardy (!) which includes this somewhat bizarre statement:

With a Homeric mind in a Paris Hilton frame, Shimer drew from her extensive knowledge of alcohol to stay in the game. Still, she got down to her undies, charmingly trying to hide her baby-blue lingerie behind a barstool.

What the heck is an Homeric Mind in this context? I suspect there's nothing to do with Julian Jaynes ...

Here's an interesting little tidbit from an article about a minister who draws upon pop culture to provide moral lessons for his flock:

Skelton said there is nothing frivolous in using popular culture for spiritual lessons, and he finds the precedent in the Bible itself.

"In First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 33, Paul quotes, 'Bad company corrupts good character,'" Skelton said. "He's quoting a line of dialogue from a comedic theater play. It's a pagan play."

The play was "Thais" by Menander, about the mistress of Alexander the Great who went on to marry the king of Egypt. In other words, Skelton said, Paul is quoting from an entertainment that was the "Pretty Woman" of its time.

Paul knew that people would understand his message if they could relate to it through a story they already knew, said Skelton, who uses that same method.

Of course, we can wonder from an academic viewpoint whether Paul was actually quoting Menander or simply echoing a saying that had become popular in his day, but its still interesting to come across this sort of thing.

The Randolph (Vermont) Herald has an item on a college professor who went on a dig this summer and found a nice sesterius:

This August, on her very first dig, on the third day of excavating a Roman fort, VTC Professor Barbara Conrey discovered a 1,900 year-old Roman coin. The last person to have touched the coin she found may have been a Roman soldier.

An architectural and building engineering technology professor at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Conrey was on the dig as part of an Earthwatch Institute summer expedition that transported her to the fort located in South Shields, England to search for ancient artifacts.

Earthwatch is a non-profit organization that works to forge links between science, the public, the environment, societies and economic development.

"As an architect and college professor teaching architectural history, I am particularly interested in ancient Roman building sites in Great Britain," Conrey explained. "I was excavating along a roadway adjacent to a reconstructed courtyard house, when I hit something hard with my trowel. The piece was large and heavy, about the size of a poker chip."

What Conrey had discovered was a bronze sestertius from about 114 AD—approximately 1,900 years ago. The dark-green-colored coin shows Emperor Trajan sitting on a raised dais, commending a group of soldiers standing in front of him. Trajan was a favorite emperor of the Roman soldiers, who celebrated his birthday well into the third century.

The coin will eventually be put on display at the Tyne and Wear Museum in England.

"The coin was minted 100 years before the road or fort was built," said Conrey. "Archaeologists believe the owner of the coin must have held on to it as a memento of Trajan’s time. The excellent condition of the coin has led archaeologists to believe it was never in circulation."

Conrey worked for 13 days at an archaeological excavation of a Roman fort called Arbeia, about four miles east of Hadrian’s Wall, on the mouth of the river Tyne, facing the North Sea. The fort functioned as a supply base for Roman soldiers. [more]

Here's a nice article on the Arbeia fort at South Shields and what they have found there so far ...

rogueclassicism is not your typical blog, in that we don't really spend most of our bandwidth ranting against or for whatever political party or viewpoint strikes our fancy nor do we regale the world with intimate details of our everyday life. Into those two categories, however, especially the former, fall the blogs which get most of the world's attention (alas!). As such, it was interesting to read this quotation in a piece in Las Vegas City Life all about bloggers:

Perhaps the best description of the limitations and potential of blogs comes from a February 2003 story by Chris Mooney, "... [B]loggers are like Socrates on speed."

We'll have to ponder the appropriateness of that one ...

The University of California, Irvine invites applications for a full-time position (tenure track) in Classics at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin in July 2005.  Candidates should have the Ph.D. in hand at the time of appointment and must demonstrate exceptional potential or achievement as teachers and scholars.

The area of specialization is open.  The department is particularly interested in candidates (Hellenists or Latinists) who combine a thorough training in Classics with interests in other humanities disciplines.  The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to the department's undergraduate program and to a growing research-intensive doctoral program in collaboration with two other University of California campuses (San Diego and Riverside).

Applicants should submit their complete dossier, including curriculum vitae and three letters of reference, no later than November 10, 2004 to: Search committee, Department of Classics, 120 HOB2, University of California, Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2000. Questions about this position may be addressed to Professor Maria Pantelia, email: mcpantel@uci.edu

Information about the UCI Classics Department and the Tri-Campus Graduate Program in Classics (UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego) can be obtained by consulting our web page at http://www.humanities.uci.edu/classics.

UC Irvine is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to excellence through diversity.

... seen on the Classics list

8.00 p.m. |DTC|The Rise
The beginnings of the Roman Empire are shrouded in mystery. Without armies, palaces, or priests, the Romans conquered and ravaged the best of other civilizations.

8.00 p.m. |HINT| Hidden Cities of the Etruscans
A look at the fascinating people that ruled Italy centuries before the Romans. Explores the contradictions in the character of the Etruscans, who embraced both art and slavery, technology and sensuality.
 
9.00 p.m. |HINT| The Roman Emperors 
When the power of Rome was concentrated into the hands of supreme rulers, the empire began to corrode as the emperors led lives of increasing depravity. We'll visit their mansions to get an inside look at the splendor--and squalor--in which they lived, and insight into their often inexplicable acts.
 
9.00 p.m. |DTC|Legions of Conquest
At the height of military power, the Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to the Sahara. Yet the same traits that created this vast expansion eventually turned the Roman military into an unwieldy and self-serving force of destabilization.

10.00 p.m. |DTC|Seduction of Power
Trace the evolution of Roman politics from the world's first representative government through the lives of Gracchi, Julius Caesar, Nero, and Septimius Severus and into a tumultuous and theatrical display of power over substance.

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