kalendae aprilis

• Veneralia -- festival in honour of Venus
• 114 B.C. -- dedication of Temple to Venus Verticordia ("Venus who turns hearts")
• 286 A.D. -- Maximianus is elevated to the rank of Augustus
• 1994 -- the spirit of rogueclassicism is born

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:40:13 AM::
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Today's selection:

sophomoric @ Merriam-Webster

hegemon @ Worthless Word for the Day

The Classics Technology Center's My Word feature highlights some business terms ...

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:32:35 AM::
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From Bonham's comes a Gnathian ware "guttus" in the form of a mouse (I know everyone has sat in a course where some prof would describe this sort of thing as "delightful"):

Larger photo and details ...

A guttus is a sort of pitcher which is designed to allow the liquid to come out in drops (as opposed to a stream) -- see the article at Lacus Curtius. [note in passing: it looks like a lamp to me]

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:21:02 AM::
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Knox College highlights some new courses at its institution, of which two are the brainchildren of Classicists:

"Sketches of Italy," taught by professor of classics Steve Fineberg. "We're reading from the ancient Greeks through the Etruscans, Romans, the Renaissance, the Romantics, the fascists and finally the modern era. It draws on my experiences in Italy, and I'm working with Beth Marzoni, a 2004 Knox grad who lived in Italy, and with Nick Regiacorte from the English department, who's teaching us some Italian. Italy is interesting because it's the source of a lot of our Western culture, but there are so many contradictions between Italy and the rest of Western culture."

"How to Be a Roman," taught by Nathan Bethell, instructor in classics and a Knox graduate, currently completing graduate school at the University of Michigan. "We're looking at both prescriptive works -- what a 'good Roman' should do, and descriptive materials -- did the Romans live consistent with their ideals. The course is taught in English and it's incredibly engaging. It really shows why you'd want to be a student at Knox, and why you'd want to be a teacher at Knox."

Bethell's course sounds like something that could be turned into a documentary ...

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:15:19 AM::
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From the Garden City Observer:

They read myths and fables, learned about gods and goddesses and took a look at great thinkers like Plato and Eratosthenes.

Then to tie it all together, the sixth-graders at Farmington Elementary School celebrated with a Greek and Roman Holiday.

"I come from a group of firm believers that kids learn by doing," said teacher Nancy Liebau. "Hands-on activities give kids hands-on experiences."

The hands-on experience came last Wednesday, when 69 sixth-graders dressed in homemade togas and wore "laurel" wreaths. They presented seven Greek and Roman plays to their fellow students, enjoyed a Greek luncheon provided by their parents and Choice Catering and capped it off with their own version of the Olympics Games.

"Students asked me back in September if we were going to have Greek Day and I said yes, but I didn't know how I was going to do it," Liebau said. "The hardest part was the plays because I wanted every child to have a part."

Stories like the Weaving Contest, Great Bear, King Midas and the Golden Touch and Daedalus and Icarus, Cupid and Psyche and Narcissus, who fell in love with his reflection in the pool, were the foundations for the plays which were a big hit with the student body.

"We even did a part of Medusa and Perseus. I love where he chops off her head," said Liebau, adding that students enjoyed the homemade costumes and props, even when one of the pillars almost landed on Narcissus.

A Frisbee filled in as a discus for the Olympics that included a relay race with a fake torch and mock chariot races.

This is the fourth year Liebau has organized the Greek and Roman Holiday as a culmination of the students' study of ancient civilizations in their social studies and language arts programs. The first three years, Liebau did it with a smaller group, but with all the components involved, she expanded it this year.

"I've never done it with so many kids, but I had parents help" said Liebau. "I had three classes of social studies students and it got a little wild in the gym."

According to Liebau, the students learned about the lifestyles, architecture, medicine, legends and myths, education and arts of ancient civilizations. They visited the birthplace of democracy and the judiciary system, studied the destruction of Pompeii and ancient class systems, wrote essays or their own versions of myths and made and painted ancient-style pottery.

Their studies also extended in art where they worked with clay trying to copy ancient pottery and paint it.

"It was fun," said Liebau. "I was exhausted, but it was so worthwhile. It's like seeing the wheels turn for a good month. It begins to connect and they see they weren't so different than us."

The students also got a second chance to wear their togas. The school held a book parade Thursday as a closing ceremony for its March Is Reading Month observance. Students joined their younger counterparts in walking the halls in the parade.

"It's so exciting as an educator," said Liebau. "The kids do read and they do read myths."

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:12:57 AM::
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The World Peace Herald cites some ancient precedent in regards to people's 'right to resist tyranny':

Do the people in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Lebanon or Iran have the right to stand up to the powers of state? A great and ancient tradition says they do and argues that resistance against tyrants is obedience to God.
   
    In classical Greece, the right of resistance against a tyrant was a citizen's obligation. Ancient Greek law -- as outlined by Plutarch, Plato, and Aristotle -- suggests an inseparable symbiosis with the liberal-democratic thinking of the Greeks. A right of resistance was only then recognized, and considered a citizen's honorable obligation, when the act of resistance was aimed at a destroyer of democracy, a tyrant, or a despot.
   
    Likewise, in ancient Roman thought, defending the freedom of the citizenry was connected to resistance. Individuals are no longer private persons when the freedom of the citizenry is at stake.
   
    This postulation of Junius Brutus (85 B.C.-42 B.C., ascribed to him by Cicero in his writings on the state, describes the thesis of the Roman school of thought on the right of resistance. The right of resistance against wanton despots, even justifying the murder of a tyrant, is accorded when the tyrant transgresses substantially against the ius naturae, the divine order, or the laws of the res publica. The deposition of the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus, the temporary secession of the plebeians, and the murder of Julius Caesar were signs of active resistance against oppression and tyranny.  [more]

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:11:22 AM::
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In anticipation of the Classical Association's annual meeting, the Times ponders the state of Classics:

Was Alexander the Great a bastard of the Persian Shah? Why did Ancient Greeks find cucumbers droll? In their spare time did Indian concubines form a bodyguard of female archers? Like what song the Syrens sang, these are puzzling questions. But they are not beyond conjecture at the annual meeting of the Classical Association, which opens at Reading University today.

The Classical Association was founded more than a century ago, after protracted and passionate correspondence in The Times. It was feared that Latin and Greek were under threat from vulgar new academic subjects, such as English. The founding patres were elite, professors and head teachers. Prime ministers and archbishops addressed their conferences. Their subject was elite, the study of ancient grammar and texts from the narrow space and time known as the Golden Age. A headmaster congratulated his pupils on being set Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, because it was “a treasure-house of grammatical peculiarities”.

Times have moved on. The classics are still seen to be sidelined by more “relevant” subjects and the decrees of our educational overlords. Textual criticism is no longer their principal discipline. Study of the languages is still elite. But the interest is far wider than before, among hoi polloi who never aspired to reading Latin and Greek. Classical civilisation includes fields undreamt of in the philology of the founders. More than 300 young delegates at Reading include strong teams from America and continental Europe. They prove that classics are not irrelevant. They are still the roots of Western civilisation, all around us, whenever we open our lips and eyes.

::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:08:23 AM::
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::Friday, April 01, 2005 5:00:17 AM::
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::Friday, April 01, 2005 4:54:01 AM::
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Leonora Neville, Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100.

Ekaterina V. Haskins, Logos and Power in Isocrates and Aristotle.

John K. Papadopoulos, Ceramicus Redivivus. The Early Iron Age Potters' Field in the Area of the Classical Athenian Agora. With a contribution by Michael R. Schilling. Hesperia Supplement 31.

::Friday, April 01, 2005 4:44:42 AM::
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9.00 p.m. |DISCC| Who Killed Julius Caesar
Historians writers and film-makers have puzzled over the assassination of Julius Caesar for centuries. Using the latest technology and modern profiling techniques experts reveal the truth behind history's most famous crime.

DISCC = Discovery Channel (Canada)

::Friday, April 01, 2005 4:42:45 AM::
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