ante diem iii kalendas octobres

• 61 B.C. -- Pompey celebrates his third triumph in recognition of his victories in the third Mithridatic War
• 290 A.D. -- martyrdom of Rhipsime, Gaiana, and companions

This one popped up on the Latinteach list (courtesy of GL! Thanks!) ... a while ago we mentioned the travelling exhibit put together by Michelle Ronnick called 12 Black Classicists. Well, now there's an official website (although there appears to be 13 now)! Enjoy!

One of rogueclassicism's readers from one of the lists I inhabit sent along an url (thanks Mette!) of a photo of that recently-found torso of Venus. From the StadtRevue:

The Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol, is pleased to announce the following schedule of research seminars and events for the academic year 2004/5. Unless otherwise stated, all sessions take place on Tuesdays at 4.10 in the Classics Seminar Room, Department of Classics & Ancient History, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol. All are welcome.

12 October: Charles Martindale (Bristol) 'Shakespeare the Philosopher: a Problem in Interdisciplinarity'

19 October: Jo Paul (Bristol) '"I'm Spartacus": Identifying a Cinematic Epic Hero'

26 October: Miriam Leonard (Bristol) 'Derrida and the Historical Imperative'

2 November: Katie Fleming (Queen Mary and Westfield College, London) 'The Philology of the Future: Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of the Enlightenment'

Monday 8 November (5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2): Colin Burrow (Gonville & Caius, Cambridge) 'Greek Tragedy Today'. Launch of Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome & The Classical Tradition

16 November: Bella Sandwell (Bristol) 'Models of Religious Identity: Understanding Religious Interaction in Late Fourth Century Antioch'

23 November: Pantelis Michelakis (Bristol) 'Performance, Reception, and the Sacrifice of Iphigenia'

30 November: Richard Buxton (Bristol) 'Weapons and Day's White Horses: Not the Deception Speech in Sophocles' Ajax'

7 December: David Hopkins (Bristol) '"Creative Translation" Revisited', followed by department dinner

7-9 January: 'Crossing Cultures: Identities in the Material World' conference. Contact Shelley.Hales@bris.ac.uk or T.Hodos@bris.ac.uk

25 January: Brendon Reay (Wellesley College) 'Virgil and cultus'

1 February: Katherine Harloe (Fellow of the Institute of Greece, Rome & The Classical Tradition) (Bristol) 'Nietzsche's Zarathustra and Theocritus'

8 February: Simon Swain (Warwick): 'The Intolerable Polemon'

15 February: Ahuvia Kahane (Royal Holloway) 'Reading the Illegible'

22 February: Richard Seaford (Exeter) 'Money and the Early Greek Mind'

1 March: Barbara Graziosi (Durham) 'The Author in the Lives of the Greek Poets'

Monday 7 - Friday 11 March: Kenneth Haynes (Brown University), Visiting Benjamin Meaker Professor, details TBA

19 April: Ross Hulkes (Bristol) 'Towards a Greco-Roman Cultural Synthesis: The Ideology of Abstract Reason in Cicero's "De Oratore"'

26 April: Tom Harrison (Liverpool) '"Vast But Obedient": Achaemenid Persia and the British Empire'

Monday 9 May: Wolfgang Iser (Constance): details TBA

Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 May: Norman Baynes Meeting for Ancient Historians.

Contact N.D.G.Morley@bris.ac.uk

... seen on the Classicists list

Grammatiki A. Karla, Vita Aesopi: Ueberlieferung, Sprach und Edition einer fruehbyzantinischen Fassung des Aesopromans.

R. Sklenar, The Taste for Nothingness. A Study of Virtus and Related Themes in Lucan's Bellum Civile.

Thomas J. Sienkewicz, LeaAnn A. Osburn, Vergil. A Legamus Transitional Reader.

Edward McCrorie (trans.), The Odyssey. Introduction and notes by Richard P. Martin.

From the Victoria Advocate comes a nice little bit of outreach by the Junior Classical League:

Latin may be dead, but its bones are scattered throughout the modern world - if you know where to look.

Take the American dollar as an example. Our founding fathers were great students of Latin. They incorporated not one but three Latin phrases into the design of the $1 bill. The most famous of these Latin phrases is found in the great seal of the United States. E Pluribus Unum, our nation's motto, translates to "one from many." No doubt this refers to the original 13 states (many) that formed our country (one).

The next Latin phrase, Annuit Coeptis, is taken straight out of Virgil's Aeneid and can be found opposite the great seal - just above the pyramid. The English translation is "He (God) has favored our beginning."

The final Latin phrase, found below the pyramid, is Novus ordo seclorum, which means "a new order of the ages." There were no democracies in the world at the time of the founding of the United States. Our founding fathers had to pattern our nation on the ancient Republics of the Greco-Roman world.

Another plentiful source of Latin in our modern world is the Victoria Advocate. Victoria is the Roman goddess of Victory. (You may know her better by her Greek name, Nike.) All the signs of the zodiac are in fact Latin words. (Taurus - bull, Pisces - fish, Aries - ram, Cancer-crab, Scorpio-scorpion, Leo-lion, Virgo-maiden, Aquarius-water carrier, Gemini-twins, Capricorn-goat, Sagittarius-archer and Libra-scales).

Even today's date is full of classical references. September comes from the Latin word septem, meaning seven. On the pre-Caesar Roman calendar, September was the seventh month of the year. (October comes from the Latin word octo meaning "eight." On the pre-Caesar Roman calendar, October was the eighth month of the year.)

The year is 2004 A.D. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domine, meaning "in the year of our Lord." It is a common misconception that A.D. stands for "after death," but logically it does not work. Christ was born in 1 A.D., more than 30 years before his crucifixion.

The Junior Classical League at MHS hopes you have enjoyed our tour of Latin in use in our modern world. We hope it gives you a new perspective. The language and culture of the ancient Romans are the basis of much of our western culture, and Latin lives in the world all around us.

9.00 p.m. |HISTC| Great Fire of Rome
In the early hours of July 19, 64 A.D, fire broke out in Rome. More than one million people ran for their lives as flames devoured their homes. The fire raged for more than a week. For centuries, questions surrounding the fire have remained unanswered. What—or who—started this raging inferno? This program takes viewers back to ancient times in search of definitive explanations. 

9.00 p.m. |DISCU| Mythbusters
Jamie and Adam reflect on one of the world’s oldest urban legends --did the Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to a Roman fleet using only mirrors and sunlight? And moving to more modern times, have you ever tried to remove the fetid funk of a skunk?

Channel Guide