NUNTII: Professor of the Week

Butler University's 'Professor of the Week' is Classicist Albert Steiner:

Professor of Classical Studies, Albert Steiner, has been teaching at Butler for 31 years.

He did not always envision for himself a career in Classical studies, though.

“I sort of fell into it by accident,” Steiner said.

He was teaching English and Latin at Manuel High School, when he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Rome for eight weeks. The professor in charge of the program encouraged him, upon his return, to go to graduate school. He received his Ph. D in Classics (Greek and Latin studies) from Ohio State University.

Steiner was born in Cincinnati and lived briefly in Chicago and West Virginia. When he was in the sixth grade, he moved to Indiana.

Though not a native Hoosier, he has earned his citizenship with 31 years of teaching at Butler. He calls his more than three decades’ worth of papers, books and artifacts that clutter his office his “practice archaeological dig.”

When talking about the impact of the Roman civilization, he mentioned the familiar adage, “All roads lead to Rome.”

“They lead out of Rome too,” Steiner said. “The Romans had a highway system as extensive as that of the [modern] American interstate system.”[more]

7:12:38 PM    

THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem xi kalendas apriles

• Festival of Mars (day 22)
• Quinquatrus (day 4)

5:56:52 AM    

JOURNAL: Anistoriton 8

The March 2004 edition of Anistoriton has hit the web and -- despite the lack of a table of contents to get quick idea of what's in it -- has a few things worth reading, including:

Elia Delaporta, Pheidias Workshop and The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

C. J. Lyes, How did the conquest of Greece affect the structure of Rome and Roman Cities? (actually an article from 1999)

Dieter Rumpel, The Production of the Phaistos Disk III:On the Printing Process of the Phaistos Disk

Perhaps this would be a good place to suggest to the editors that the apparent low readership of the site can probably be tied to the lack of any hint of what's lurking behind the buttons at the Anistoriton home page. At least add a button with a 'contents of current issue' or better yet, have the home page indicate the current contents.

5:51:58 AM    

USEFUL: Portland Vase

While Minerva never seems to put articles online (and they haven't updated their tocs for recent issues, grumble) , as a sort of update to an article in the September/October 2003 issue, they have put up an interesting/useful chart which tabulates the changes in interpretations of the scenes on the Portland Vase over the centuries. In case you want to look at the object itself, here's the British Museum's page devoted to it.

5:34:34 AM    

NUNTII: Classics in Scotland

Here's a nasty spinoff effect of recent decisions in Scotland:

HOPES that the shortage of classics teachers in Scotland’s state schools could be solved by importing them from England have been dashed by news that, under official teaching regulations, this would not be allowed.

The Scotsman has learned that, due to the differences in the countries’ education systems, teachers who qualified in the classics in England, cannot move north to teach the Scottish curriculum.

The teaching of the subject in Scotland has already been placed in doubt following the announcement last week by Strathclyde University that it had decided to end the last available course in which students can qualify as classics teachers.

Judith Sischy, the director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, had voiced hopes that the subjects of Latin and ancient Greek, as well as classical studies, could continue to be taught in schools if teachers were drafted in from south of the Border.

But Duncan Hamilton, the former SNP MSP who has thrown his weight behind the campaign to fight for the continuation of the classics as a school subject, has pointed out that this cannot happen: "Under current rules, if you’re not training classics teachers in Scotland, you aren’t teaching them at all. [more from the Scotsman]

5:00:03 AM    

REVIEWS: From BMCR

Luciano Nicastri, Classici nel tempo. Sondaggi sulla ricezione di Properzio, Orazio, Ovidio.

Maria Brosius (ed.), Ancient Archives and Archival Traditions. Concepts of Record-Keeping in the Ancient World. Oxford Studies in Ancient Documents.

Long on Baltussen on Wehner

Haug on Hackstein on Haug on Hackstein.

4:45:51 AM    

AWOTV: On TV Today

5.00 p.m. |DCIVC| The Emperor of the Steppes
dna

8.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Ancient Clues: Mass Death in Marseille
dna

8.30 p.m. |DCIVC| Ancient Warriors: The Legends of Rome
dna

Channel Guide

4:41:35 AM