THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

idus novembres

rites in honour of Jupiter

epulum in honour of Jupiter

rites in honour of Feronia

rites in honour of Fortuna Primigenia

rites in honour of Pietas (?)

ludi Plebeii (day 10)

36 B.C. -- ovatio of Octavian for "his" victories over Sextus Pompeius in
Sicily; the real author of the victory, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, was
granted the corona rostrata

354 -- birth of Augustine

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 6:04:37 AM::
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REVIEW: Pompeii

Jonathan Yardley (presumably not the guy who taught me Latin) has a review in the Washington Post of Robert Harris' Pompeii which concludes thus:

There are moments, as the above suggests, when you're likely to feel you're back in Latin 1, what with Attilius and Ampliatus and Cuspius and Brittius and all the others similarly named who pass through these pages, but Harris actually has done a nice job of creating a believable 1st-century atmosphere without losing the 21st-century reader along the way. Obviously he has done scads of research, but the results don't lie heavily on the page. If anything, one comes away from "Pompeii" with a heightened regard for the engineers of Rome, who devised, built and maintained a water system that most of today's engineers would -- or certainly should -- be proud to claim as their own.

More ...

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:41:18 AM::
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CHATTER: Alex Rodriguez

On signing his $252 million (yes, million) contract with the Texas Rangers (baseball) last year, Alex Rodriguez is quoted in USA Today as saying:

It seems everyone's won a title except the poor little rich boy at short, who said this of his landmark score the day he first arrived at the Rangers' spring training camp: "I'm almost embarrassed and ashamed of this contract. I don't know if Michael Jordan or Bill Gates or Alexander the Great...I don't know if anybody is worth this money."

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:37:37 AM::
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CHATTER: Seen in Passing

From the Cincinnati Enquirer's business page:

Any team with the right leadership can achieve outrageous objectives, insists Bill Davidson, chairman of MESA Research and author of Breakthrough: How Great Companies Set Outrageous Objectives and Achieve Them. He quotes Thucydides describing Athenians of the Golden Age: "They are addicted to innovation, and their designs are characterized by swiftness in conception and execution. They are adventurous beyond their power, daring beyond their judgment and sanguine when in danger."

Interesting how business guys who take this quote (from a Corinthian ambassador, ostensibly, speaking to the Spartans) never quote the conclusion:

Thus they toil on in trouble and danger all the days of their lives, with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting: their only idea of a holiday is to do what the occasion demands, and to them laborious occupation is less of a misfortune than the peace of a quiet life. To describe their character in a word, one mighttruly say that they were born into the world to take no rest themselves and to give none to others.

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:31:21 AM::
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REVIEW: Bacchae

A production in New Zealand ... here's a tease in medias res:

As with all Greek tragedy, we mortals prove to be mere playthings of the gods. WeÕre punished for believing we can interfere in the forces of the universe as they have ordained them. Maybe when Euripides wrote The Bacchae more than 2,400 years ago he was penning a cautionary tale for women who sought pleasures beyond the service of men.

These days any bloke who has tried to unravel the mysteries of womanhood, let alone infiltrate the feminist movement, may identify with Pentheus. Likewise women who have got so carried away with being women they have alienated themselves from half of humanity may sense a sisterhood with Agave.

It may put many in mind of the drug-induced atrocities that occur with alarming frequency, these days, at the hands of people (mostly male) who take P in their quest for a good time. One way or another The Bacchae achieves its right to be called a classic by proving that the more things change the more they stay the same.

More ...

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:23:46 AM::
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BULLETIN BOARD

Jobs:

UOttawa: Judaeo-Christian Religions in Antiquity (tenure track)

Dartmouth: Greek Language and Literature (tenure track)

All jobs (use the calendar on the Jobs page!)

Events:

MEDEA, SENECAE FABULA
IN XXXXVI ANNIVERSARIA MEMORIA EX QUO OPUS FUNDATUM LATINITAS, CIVITATIS VATICANAE, DIEM FESTUM LATINITATIS RECOLIT.

All events (use the calendar on the events page!)

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 5:07:53 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

7.00 p.m. |HINT| The Rise of Christianity: The First 1000 Years, Pt. 3
"The Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, survives in
splendor for a 1,000 years after Rome's fall. But the sands of
Arabia give birth to a new faith, Islam, that soon conquers half
of Christendom. Though Europe is mired in the Dark Ages, Irish
monks copy ancient texts, preserving them for the future."

8.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Meet The Ancestors: The Killing Field
dna

10.00 p.m. |TLC| Finding Atlantis
"The search for the lost civilization of Atlantis has captured
the imagination for the last 2000 years. We examine the evidence
gathered by 3 teams, each with it's own theory. Discover
mysterious links to ancient civilizations lost to time."

HINT = History International

DCIVC = Discovery Civilization (Canada)

TLC = The Learning Channel (U.S. and Canada)

::Thursday, November 13, 2003 4:50:43 AM::
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