ante diem iv kalendas apriles

• 119 -- martyrdom of Secundus at Asti
• ca. 311 -- martyrdom of Pastor, Victorinus, and companions at Nicomedia

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:37:50 AM::
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Today's selection:

ailment @ Dictionary.com

posthumous @ Merriam-Webster

paralipsis @ Wordsmith

Can't remember if we mentioned the Classics Technology Center's My Word feature on words associated with Roman money ...

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:31:23 AM::
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I think I forgot to mention Father Foster last week:

It was once a book containing music for the entire year but its now considered obsolete. It's the “Liber Usualis” and when our “Latin Lover” brings it along he can't resist bursting into songs so moving they bring tears to his eyes...

And here's this week's:

“Resurgo” in the Latin language means to rise up again... Listen as our “Latin Lover”, Carmelite Father Reginald Foster speaks to us this Easter Season of waxy candles and sings to us of “The Lamb” redeeming the sheep...

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:28:18 AM::
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Quid minister Rajamäki dixerit (25.3.2005)

Kari Rajamäki, minister rerum domesticarum Finniae, ait fieri posse, ut per Finniam quotannis multa centena feminarum peregrinarum transirent, quae servarum modo sive in Finnia sive in aliis terris aut venales proponerentur aut ad mercatum operae illegalem pervenirent.

Quae cum ita essent, minister Rajamäki tam teloniarios quam cohortes vigilum et custodes limitaneos hortatus est, ut et crebrioribus inspectionibus faciendis et aliis consiliis contra mercaturam hominum captis efficacius prohiberent, ne advenae fines Finniae illegaliter transgrederentur.

Reijo Pitkäranta
Nuntii Latini, Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE)
(used with permission)

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:25:10 AM::
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::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:22:16 AM::
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::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:12:06 AM::
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From the Warsaw Business Journal:

The Romans did not count the days of the month as we do now. Instead, three days in every month had names: Kalends (first day of the month); Nones (the seventh day in March, May, July, and October; the fifth in the other months) and Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months).

Then along came Julius Caesar, who implemented the Julian calendar. This established a 365-day year with a leap year every fourth year. The calendar lasted until modified by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to the one that presently applies throughout most of the Western world, apart from the Orthodox section.

Julius Caesar became a famous warrior, author, libertine and the elected dictator of Rome. Prior to that, in order to achieve his goal, he started the Gallic Wars (58-49 BC) and even ventured into Asia Minor in a conquest that was so swift he described it in three pithy words: "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered"). Bush used more words.

Then, just after his appointment as a perpetual dictator, he became the victim of friendly fire and was stabbed to death by his own countrymen on March 15, 44 BC.

Time for reflection
Since that time, the Ides of March has had an important predictive ability, as it often marks periods of what George Soros refers to as "reflexivity," whereby changes in perception cause changes in fundamentals, which, in turn, feed back to cause changes in perception. An implication of this self-reinforcing process is that once the trend reverses it will become self-reinforcing in the opposite direction. And the trend has reversed. [more]

Okay ... you had me right up to 'friendly fire', then I totally lost the train of thought ... I won't comment on 'changes in fundamentals' ...

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:49:02 AM::
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::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:46:00 AM::
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From a Hamilton  College press release:

Robert S. J. Garland, the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics at Colgate University, will give the Winslow Classics Lecture at Hamilton College on Thursday, March 31, at 4:10 p.m. in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building. His lecture, titled “From Media Tarts to Tabloid Queens: Attention-Seeking in Antiquity,” is free and open to the public.

Garland holds a B.A. from Manchester University, an M.A. from McMaster University, and a Ph.D in Ancient History from University College London.  His books include Julius Caesar (2004), Surviving Greek Tragedy (2004), The Daily Life of the Greeks (1998), and The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman World (1995); he is also the author of numerous articles and reviews.

Professor Garland notes that when we consider the limited means of achieving public acclaim and recognition in the pre-modern era, we might doubt that anything equivalent to celebrity status existed in antiquity.  The fact is, however, that relentless attention seeking has always been an ineradicable aspect of the human personality.  It certainly had its arch exponents in antiquity, among them Alcibiades, Augustus, Cleopatra, and Theodora.  His talk will focus upon the types of achievement that made certain people into celebrities, the mechanisms by which celebrity was promulgated, and the public response to the phenomenon of celebrity.

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:40:22 AM::
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10.00 p.m. |HINT|  Lost Treasures of the Ancient World--The Celts
In the First Millennium BC, the tribes known as the Celts were the dominant force on the continent of Europe. In fringe regions like Ireland, the Celtic people continued to flourish long into the Christian Age. These were warriors with a unique way of life, as this fascinating episode reveals. Dark religious rituals and a love of bloody fighting were a vital part of their life, and classical writers condemned what they saw as a barbarian lifestyle. But we now know that Celtic culture was rich and sophisticated. Buried Celtic treasures have revealed their achievement in crafts such as jewelry, while the great legends of Irish literature confirm that epic storytelling was also part of the life of this still-mysterious ancient people.  

HINT = History International

::Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:35:32 AM::
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