LAST POST: At the Auctions

Still at Sotheby's, here's a late sixth-century Attic Black Figure 'eye cup' ... I always thought that if the ancient Greeks had coffee, this is what they'd drink it from (or at least it's what I'd drink coffee from ... heck, if I had one now I'd drink coffee from it ... it's nearly 30 cm across):

The official page ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:05:02 PM::
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NUNTII: Trajan's Villa

The Italian 'ministry of culture' (I'm not quite sure how to translate it literally) has a fairly lengthy article (in Italian) on the excavation of Trajan's Villa, begun in 1999, at Arcinazzo (60 km from Rome). Highlights of the article include the sheer size of the villa complex (5 hectares) and its huge rectangular/symmetrical garden with polychrome opus sectile pavements. Unfortunately, the article doesn't have many 'spectacular' photos, but some idea of the site can be had ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:58:27 PM::
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CHATTER: The Last Gladiator

Here's one you might consider emulating if you're a Latin Club looking for a drama project ... or a drama club looking for something Roman ... or a bunch of kids with a bunch of time on your hands and you want to do something dramatic. Somewhere in Missouri, West Harrison High School is performing The Last Gladiator, described:

Attention friends and countrymen (and West Harrison play-goers)! You are about to witness the finest gladiator battle in Roman history! Well, that may be a matter of opinion.

The Emperor is away at war leaving his daughter to rule the empire. One senator remains behind, much to the princess's dismay. Senator Altilis would like nothing better than to rule the Roman Empire himself and will stop at nothing to do so. Peasant thieves, who just happen to have their sites set on the palace, accidentally get involved in the plan to save the princess from an unwanted marriage to Brudis the gladiator.

Is there enough time to train the peasant, now gladiator in time? Is there enough paper to keep up with the messages between the princess, Senator Altilis, and the Emperor? Will the princess marry the last gladiator standing or will she rule the empire of her own free will?

Source

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:34:48 PM::
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NUNTII: Simon the Just Inscription

There's an AP Wire story zipping about (various versions have been sent to me by various readers and seen on various lists ... thanks to all!) concerning the discovery of a Greek inscription in Jerusalem, apparently referring to Simon the Just. The best coverage is from MSNBC (which also means it will have the shortest shelf life, alas). Inter alia, it says:

The inscription says the monument is the tomb of “Simeon who was a very just man and a very devoted old (person) and waiting for the consolation of the people.” Simeon is a Greek version of Simon.
       The passage is identical to the Gospel verse Luke 2:25 as it appears in a 4th-century version of the Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, which was later revised extensively.
       “This (the inscription) shows there were different versions of the Old and New Testament going around,” said Zias, who presented his find Thursday at the annual conference of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Atlanta.

MSNBC seems also to be one of the few sources carrying a tracing of the squeeze of the inscription:

Here's the full MSNBC coverage. In case it expires, here's the Guardian's coverage (sans picture, alas). Just in time for Christmas ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:25:33 PM::
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NUNTII: Peter Jones in the Spectator

Peter Jones' latest begins thusly:

As WMDs fail to surface in Iraq, it looks more and more likely that we went to war on false pretences. This is no new phenomenon. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 490-425 bc), the first war of Western literature was fought on equally illusory grounds — though that did not stop Herodotus justifying it.

In his Iliad and Odyssey, Homer (c. 700 bc) informs us that Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, seduced Menelaus’ wife Helen back to Ilium in Troy. The Greeks raised an army to get her back. Efforts to reach a settlement failed, but after a ten-year siege Ilium was sacked and Helen recovered. Homer even portrays life chez the Menelauses back home in Greece in their twilight years.

More ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:09:28 PM::
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THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem xii kalendas decembres

• Mercatus
• 270 (?) -- birth of the future emperor Maximinus Daia
• 284 A.D. -- elevation of Diocletian to the rank of Caesar
• 297 A.D. -- martyrdom of Octavius, Solutor, and Adventor
• 300 A.D. -- martyrdom of Dasius
• 302 A.D. -- martyrdom of Ampelus and friends

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 5:35:03 AM::
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CHATTER: Non quite sequitur, but we'll let it pass

Someone at the Lehigh County Humane Society obviously took a Classics course or two:

Five tiny puppies were found abandoned and cold near a trash container in Allentown and now there is a $500 reward for information leading to who could have left them behind [...]

The puppies are being fed powdered puppy milk. The Humane Society workers named them Athena, Calliope, Echo, Luna and Zephyr. They were given the names of Greek gods and goddesses because they survived the elements together.

From NBC10 ... doesn't it just make you wanna say 'awwwwwwwwwww'? (the photo might)

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 5:13:22 AM::
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GOSSIP: Seen in Passing

Hot on the heels of the news of the a flick about Pompeii comes news of the latest Disneyfication efforts which will, no doubt, have several folks clucking their tongues:

Walt Disney Studios is brushing up on its Greek mythology. The studio, which explored the world of the gods in its 1987 animated feature "Hercules," has picked up "King of the Gods," an original concept from writer Sid Quashie, who will write the script. The epic fantasy explores how the young god Zeus discovered that his destiny was to overthrow his father, the evil Titan Cronus, and become ruler of the world. It is being developed as a live-action adventure that could have franchise potential in the vein of "The Lord of the Rings."

From the Oregonian ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 5:07:59 AM::
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NUNTII: Staging Aeschylus

Swarthmore recently hosted a theatre symposium called "Staging Aeschylus Today". Coverage in The Phoenix opened with this tantalizing account of what a certain actress had to say:

“If you choose to open your mouth and enter the political arena, as a woman you cannot but damage the life of your children.”

So declared actress Olympia Dukakis as she compared the modern woman to Aeschylus’s “Clytemnestra” ...

Unfortunately, we aren't told of the reaction. Nevertheless, there's more about the symposium ...

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 4:55:48 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Tonight

11.00 p.m. |HINT| Foot Soldier: The Barbarians
"Profile of the savage fighters who surrounded and then
conquered ancient Rome, ushering in the Dark Ages. Hosted by
Richard Karn."

HINT = History International

::Thursday, November 20, 2003 4:46:22 AM::
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