nonae martiae

• Festival of Mars continues (day 7)
• rites at the temple of Vediovis on the Capitoline
• 322 B.C. -- death of Aristotle (maybe)
• 149 A.D. -- birth of a daughter, Lucilla, to the emperor Marcus Aurelius
• 161 A.D. -- death of Antoninus Pius; dies imperii of Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius
• 203 A.D.-- martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity

::Monday, March 07, 2005 5:05:56 AM::
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Gorbatshov de politica renovationis (4.3.2005)

Mihail Gorbatshov, ultimus praesidens Unionis Sovieticae, de Russia relationem scripsit, in qua dolet, quod politica renovationis, perestroika dicta, nomine tantum illos valores assecuta sit, ad quos spectaverit. Nihilo minus Gorbatshov praesidentem Vladimirum Putin sustinet, quia censet maiorem Russorum partem ab illo repraesentari.

Tuomo Pekkanen
Nuntii Latini, Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE)
(used with permission)

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:58:55 AM::
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Interesting little concluding snippet from an interview with Victor Davis Hansen (the whole thing is posted at his site):

You are currently writing a history of the Peloponnesian War. What lessons does Thucydides have for the present day?

Hanson:  Yes, it is due out from Random House in August. Thucydides reminds us that, contrary to modern behavioralists, human nature is constant and thus predictable, and thus as well history is useful and not like 19th-century biology that is rendered obsolete by a radically changing technology that allows the discovery of the cell or atom. And he warns us that no people, however wealthy and free, get a pass from history, and that they have to struggle daily to ensure that they do not lose what was given to them.

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:53:48 AM::
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::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:49:57 AM::
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::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:47:08 AM::
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Latest headlines from Akropolis World News (in Classical Greek):

Steve Fosset completes first solo flight around the world - Walking ancestor's fossils found in Ethiopia

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:37:50 AM::
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::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:36:08 AM::
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From the Crimson White:

"Saluwete," said Kirk Summers, a UA classics professor, as he greeted a standing room-only theater of students from Alabama high schools on Friday morning.

The more than 500 teenagers had come to participate in the University's third annual Latin Day.

"Who would have thought that Latin Day would be a concern for a fire marshal," said Hank Lazer, assistant vice president for undergraduate programs, in reference to the packed house.

The lively crowd showed that good rivalries go across cultural and lingual lines, as they chanted "Roll Tide!" and "War Eagle!" in Latin.

Activities for the day ranged from a Roman fashion show to a mythology face-off to a Roman cuisine contest, just to name a few.

The day started with the Roman cuisine contest, in which students tried to recreate ancient foods the Romans ate.

Ashley Phares, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School, made Dulcia Pomesta (food of the household). It consisted of figs stuffed with nuts and cinnamon with a honey and white wine sauce (the white wine actually being grape juice). Phares said she became interested in Latin because she wanted to become a doctor.

Tatiana Summers, the professor in charge of putting on the event, agreed that the classics program helps students interested in the field of medicine.

"It sets them apart," she said. "A classics major sticks out to admissions and shows them you [the student] can deal with very hard subjects."

Summers said it took her a couple of months to put the program together, and she is very pleased with the results.

"We have refined [it] quite a bit," she said. Attendance has increased steadily, from 375 students the first year to more than 500 this year, she said.

Summers started the program two years ago after high school teachers requested such an event. The goal of Latin day is not only to increase recruitment, but also to recruit those interested in the classics major. Summers said the classics program at the University is growing because of Latin Day. Classes are becoming larger, and she said she is pleased with how hands-on they are.

Jennie King, a Latin teacher at Tuscaloosa Academy, praised the event.

"It gives students a chance to see others in Latin," King said. "It helps show them they are not different for liking Latin."

I'm rather certain Dr. Summers didn't say "Saluwete" ...

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:30:11 AM::
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Okay ... this item from the Telegraph is just silly:

One of the ancient world's most celebrated love stories has led to a modern-day argument after Bulgaria claimed that the "Greek myth" of the fabled musician Orpheus is not Greek at all.

The tale of love and loss between Orpheus and Eurydice is as famous as the tragedy of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. But more than two and a half millennia after the pair are thought to have lived, Greece and Bulgaria are fighting over the right to claim them as their own.

"Orpheus lived in Bulgaria," Prof Nikolay Ovcharov, a Bulgarian archaeologist, said yesterday. "Greeks say he was Greek, but it's not true, that is simply Greek nationalism."

Last summer Prof Ovcharov led an expedition in southern Bulgaria which claimed to have located Orpheus's burial site.

However, a new advertising campaign is to promote Greece as the "land of mythical Orpheus", sparking outrage in Sofia.

Donka Sokolova, the head of the Bulgarian Association of Travel Agencies, said the campaign was "a twist of history". But Alexandra Christopoulou, of Athens's National Archaeological Museum, hit back at Bulgarian "propaganda".

"Nations claim Greek heroes all the time," she said. "It happened with Alexander the Great and now with Orpheus. Bulgaria did not even exist at the time."

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:27:43 AM::
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A Reuters piece gives us some more details on that recent find of a perfume production facility on Cyprus:

Egypt's Queen Cleopatra showed how to woo members of the opposite sex with it, the French may have perfected it, but it is the Cypriots who can now lay claim to the world's oldest perfumery.

Nestled among the overgrown weeds on a Cypriot hillside offering stunning views of the Mediterranean, is a pit containing circular imprints which held perfume jars which Italian archeologists believe is the oldest source of the multi-billion industry of today.

"This is 4,000 years old. Without a doubt, it is the oldest production site for perfume in the world," said Italian archeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, team leader of a mission excavating the Pyrgos-Mavroraki site 55 miles southwest of Cyprus's capital Nicosia.

Scientists have managed to extract essences of the world's oldest scents and reconstruct the aromas used four millennia ago from fragments of clay perfume bottles.

They have managed to unlock the aromatic oils in the tiny clay fragments, giving an invaluable insight into the scents which delighted our ancestors.

And, archeologists have discovered, modern preferences are not too different from those of 4,000 years ago.

"I smelt this one and immediately thought, Pino Silvestre!" said Belgiorno, unblocking the stopper on a strong smelling golden fluid in a small vial, comparing it to a modern cologne with green bottles shaped like a pine cone.

Scientists from the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage found aromas of cinnamon, laurel, myrtle, anise and citrus bergamot in clay fragments, all indigenous plants growing in the region.

The perfumery formed part of a larger site dating from 2000 BC which included a copper smelting works, a winery and an olive press, producing the essential ingredient for essences.

Further research in the area will start in September.

A related article from Reuters ...

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:25:35 AM::
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In the spirit of the, er, season, Father Foster waxes about Julius Caesar and that Ides thing ... here's the official description:

What better way to begin the month than by giving our resident "Latin Lover", Carmelite Father Reginald Foster the chance to speak about one of his favorite characters from the ancient world. Be sure to listen as "at a sign being given" he recounts how Julius Caesar was stabbed 33 times...

listen ...

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:21:36 AM::
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I forgot to mention this one yesterday (it is part of the same column in the Billings Gazette about the various epithets of Mary) ... I'm sure there are many writers of papers, dissertations, and blogs who can identify:

Speaking of which, I also stumbled across a story about what might be the most distressing typographical errors of all time. My intention in taking up the subject of typos from time to time, incidentally, is not to make excuses for those of us toiling at newspapers, but I do hope this story will help you understand how difficult it is to keep all mistakes out of our work.

What happened was this: The brothers Foulis, famous printers in Glasgow, Scotland, published an edition of the Roman poet Horace in 1744, announcing to the world that it would be a perfect example of typographical accuracy. The Foulis brothers were sure of it because they had hired six good proofreaders who spent hours poring over each page.

When the proofreaders were through, each page was posted in the hall of the University of Glasgow for two weeks, with the declaration that anyone who could find a single error would be given 50 pounds. No mistakes were discovered, evidently, so the edition was published … and was only then found to contain several errors, including one in the first line of the first page.

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:18:26 AM::
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10.00 p.m. |HINT| Gods & Goddesses
The world of the Ancient Greeks lives on today through its mythology. For countless generations prior to biblical times, tales of gods and goddesses were passed down by storytellers and interwoven into traditions and philosophies. Each city devoted itself to particular gods. But these gods also had human frailties. Where did the pantheon originate? Did any of the stories in Greek mythology actually occur? We look at new archaeological evidence that supports the possibility.

HINT = History International

::Monday, March 07, 2005 4:15:28 AM::
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