pridie kalendas februarias

1000 B.C. -- temple of Hercules at Tyre completed (according to one 'traditional' reckoning)

817 B.C. -- death of Anchises (according to the same reckoning)

36 B.C. -- birth of Antonia ("Minor"), daughter of Marcus Antonius and Octavia and future mother of hope-to-be-emperor Germanicus and emperor-to-be Claudius

c. 250 A.D. -- martyrdom of Metras/Metranus in Alexandria

c. 250 A.D. -- martyrdom of Saturninus, Thrysus, and Victor in Alexandria

irascible @ Dictionary.com

forensic @ Worthless Word for the Day

From the Herald:

A previously unkown Roman fort has been found at Calstock in Cornwall, one of only a handful of sites giving evidence of Roman presence in the county, and the first found close to a silver mine.

Archaeologists from the University of Exeter say the site may be evidence the Romans mined tin in the county.

The hill-top site where the first-century fort is in an area known to have been involved with medieval silver mining in the 13th and 14th centuries.

University archaeologists became interested in the site when they found references in medieval documents to the smelting of silver at the old castle and next to the church in Calstock.

A geophysical survey - similar to an underground X-ray - clearly showed the outline of a feature that is a very similar shape to another Roman fort recently found near Lostwithiel, also in Cornwall.

The team started digging and uncovered the unique and instantly recognisable shape of a Roman military ditch, confirming their find as a Roman fort.

The fort, which measures about 80 square metres, was probably used as soldiers' barracks, workshops and stables, and is very well preserved.

It stands just a couple of miles away from a silver mine and has the remains of furnaces - indicating smelting activity.

University of Exeter archaeologist Dr Stephen Rippon said it was an exciting find, which could yield important information in piecing together more about the Romans, who invaded Britain in 43 AD.

"When I first saw the results from the geophysical survey, suggesting the outline of a Roman fort, I could hardly believe my eyes," he said.

"As an archaeologist it is so rare to find something so significant, which was previously entirely unknown.

"It's a very exciting discovery."

"It's possibly a coincidence that the Roman fort and army were located so close to this mine but we do know elsewhere in Roman Britain that the Roman army were involved in mining minerals.

"Romans knew about Britain's rich mineral wealth and there's even evidence of tin being exported to Europe even before the Roman invasion."

However, it is not known whether the Romans mined silver in the country, but radiocarbon dating tests on the fortress are being carried out to allow the team to date the industrial workings at the fort to discover whether the Romans were smelting silver.

Results are expected within the next few months.

"If we find this to be the case it could possibly be the first example of Romans silver mining in Britain," Dr Rippon said.

"They would have dug up the ore, transported it back to camp and that's where they would have done the smelting."

It is thought that the precious metal would then have been transported back to Italy where it would have been minted into coins for use within the empire.

"The Roman army only stayed in the South West for a few decades after the Conquest before moving on to Wales," Dr Rippon said.

"This find could help us to understand whether they were merely keeping watch over the locals or were actually interested in exploiting commercial opportunities in the region.

"The discovery could therefore further our understanding of the rich history of mining in the county.

"It's only the third Roman fort in Cornwall.

"We know very little about what the Roman Army was doing down here.

"It could go some way to further explaining what attracted the Romans to Britain."

The team of excavators, led by University of Exeter research fellow Chris Smart, has also dug up pottery, believed to be from the first century AD.

The research project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust with additional support from the University of Exeter.

The two other known sites of Roman forts in Cornwall are also in the South East of the county.

One was discovered last year near Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel, and the other is at Nanstallon, near Bodmin.

Both sites are close to mineral deposits in areas which are associated with tin mining.

A slideshow accompanies the original article ...

PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
in its 45th year
an Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar
under the auspices of the
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Department of Religious Studies
201 Logan Hall
with support from
the Penn Humanities Forum


TOPIC FOR 2007-2008: "Tracing the Patterns, (Un/Re-)Weaving the Threads"

co-chairs: Annette Yoshiko Reed and Robert Alan Kraft

secretary: Harry Tolley (University of Pennsylvania)

webmaster: Jay C. Treat (University of Pennsylvania)

For this, the 45th year of the PSCO, our aim is to take stock of current
scholarship in early Jewish and Christian traditions and their transmission
and diffusion across a broad range of geographical and cultural contexts in
Late Antiquity. To facilitate discussion between specialists in different
subfields, we have chosen to define our sessions by geographical area,
rather than by religious tradition, theme, or textual corpus. By following
the "threads" of various traditions through regional trajectories, we hope
to assess, not only our literary remains, but also archaeological evidence,
inscriptions, etc.

In our initial meeting, John Reeves, Bill Adler, and Max Grossman shared
thoughts on current directions and methodological concerns in the study of
early Judaism and early Christianity. Following up on this discussion, the
second meeting of the PSCO focused on the Syro-Palestinian area, with
guests Hayim Lapin and Lee Levine. The third session (in San Diego)
welcomed Malcolm Choat and AnnMarie Luijendijk (plus Peter
Artz-Graber, briefly) on Egypt.

The fourth PSCO meeting is scheduled for 7 February 2008, with the focus
on Asia Minor. Opening remarks and observations will be made by two of
our own long-time participants,

Professor Ross Kraemer (Brown University -- see
http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10128)

and Professor Vasiliki Limberis (Temple University -- see
http://www.temple.edu/religion/faculty/limberis.html).

Appended below is a long list of readings provided by the presenters that
represent a variety of approaches to the study Judaism and Christianity in
Cappadocia and Anatolia in the early centuries of the common era and reflect
their respective interests.

For a quick taste of how our presenters approach some of the relevant
issues, perhaps look first at their respective treatments as well as at the
titles (at least) of the listed readings:

R. S. Kraemer, review of Paul Trebilco, Jewish Communities in Asia Minor
(Cambridge, 1991); IOUDAIOS Reviews
ftp://ftp.lehigh.edu/pub/listserv/ioudaios-review/4.1994/trebilco.kraemer.021

V. Limberis, "The Eyes infected by Evil: Basil of Caesarea's
Homily, On Envy," HTR 84.2 (1991); available online through JSTOR for those
of you who have access --
http://www.jstor.org/view/00178160/ap050317/05a00050/0

Suggested readings (several of which can be found online):

W. M. Ramsay and G. L. Bell, The Thousand and One Churches
(London: Hodder and Stoughton 1909).

G. Frank, "The Pilgrim's Gaze in the Age before Icons," in R.
S. Nelson, ed., Visuality Before and Beyond the Renaissance
(Cambridge 2000).

Stephen Mitchell, Anatolia, Land, Men, and Gods in Asia
Minor, v. 2, The Rise of the Church (Oxford, 1993).

R. Van Dam's excellent trilogy: Kingdom of Snow : Roman
Rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press 2002); Families and Friends
in late Roman Cappadocia (2003); Becoming Christian: the
Conversion of Roman Cappadocia (2003).

Derek Krueger, "Writing and the Liturgy of Memory in Gregory
of Nyssa's Life of Macrina," JECS 8.4 (2000).

S. Elm, Virgins of God: The making of Asceticism in Late
Antiquity (Oxford, 1994).

S. Metivier, La Cappadoce IVe-VI Siecle: Une histoire
provinciale de l"Empire romain d'Orient (Paris 2005).

P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1991)

W. Ameling, ed., Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis, vol. 2: Asia Minor
(Mohr-Siebeck 2004)

B. Lifshitz, Donateurs et Fondateurs dans les synagogues juives (Paris,
1967), nos. 12-37.

J. Reynolds and R. Tannenbaum, Jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias
(Cambridge, 1987).

L. Robert, Nouvelles Inscriptions de Sardes (Paris, 1964).

J. H. Kroll, 'The Greek Inscriptions of the Sardis Synagogue,' HTR 94.1
(2001), 3-127.

F. M. Cross, 'The Hebrew Inscriptions from Sardis,' HTR 95 (2002), 3-19.

E. Miranda, 'La comunite giudaica di Hierapolis di Frigia,' EA 31 (1999),
109-56.

T. Rajak and D. Noy, 'Archisynagogoi: Office, Title and Social Status in the
Greco-Jewish Synagogue,' JRS 83 (1993), 75 -93.

A. Chaniotis, 'The Jews of Aphrodisias: New Evidence and Old Problems,' SCI
21 (2002), 209-42.

F. Millar, 'Christian Emperors, Christian Church and the Jews of the
Diaspora in the Greek East, CE 379-450,' JJS 55 (2004), 1-24.

Gary Gilbert, "Jews in Imperial Administration and its Significance for
Dating the Jewish Donor Inscription from Aphrodisias," JSJ 35, no. 2 (April,
2004, 169-84);

Dietrich-Alex Koch, "The God-fearers between Facts and Fiction: Two
theosebeis-inscriptions from Aphrodisias and Their Bearing for the New
Testament," Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology, 60:1 (2006),
62-90.


The remaining sessions of the PSCO are tentatively scheduled as follows:

45.5 late February or early March -- Western Roman Empire
45.6 mid to late March -- Persia and East of Syro-Palestine
45.7 mid to late April -- Byzantium and under Islam

**See the PSCO Web page for further details
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/C

ante diem iii kalendas februarias

405 B.C. -- death of Sophocles (by one reckoning)

58 B.C. -- "official" birthday of Livia, wife of Augustus

9 B.C. -- dedication of the Ara Pacis

133 A.D. -- birth of the future emperor Didius Julianus

228 A.D. -- martyrdom of Martina (?)

311 A.D. -- martyrdom of Savina of Milan

canorous @ Dictionary.com

sacerdotal @ Worthless Word for the Day

prudential @ Wordsmith

From a UC Riverside press release:

Michele Salzman, professor of history at UC Riverside, is one of five UC researchers honored by the American Philological Association for developing course materials for sixth- and seventh-grade social studies teachers about the world of late antiquity.

The 2007 APA Prize for Scholarly Outreach, presented at the international association’s annual meeting in Chicago in early January, recognizes the work of the University of California Multi-Campus Research Group in the History and Culture of Late Antiquity.

“This is an important affirmation of our efforts to share information and new insights into late antiquity with middle school teachers,” Salzman said. “The teachers have been really excited and appreciative of our efforts to explore the ancient world. And it is rewarding to receive this recognition from the American Philological Association since this is the only award they give for outreach.”

Other members of the group include Claudia Rapp of UCLA, Emily Albu of UC Davis, Harold Drake of UC Santa Barbara and Susanna Elm of UC Berkeley.

The team began working in 1999 to develop instructional materials for middle-school social studies teachers about the world of late antiquity, including the fall of the multicultural Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity and, to a lesser extent, Islam.

The group offered one-day workshops – including at UC Riverside and California State University San Bernardino – and provided teachers with course materials such as extensive maps, images, bibliography and directions for further study.

“The group's project was intellectually valuable for demonstrating with rigor, clarity, and imagination the enormous breadth of the world of the Roman Empire and its eventual division into East and West,” Helene P. Foley, chair of the prize committee, said in the citation announcing the winning project.

The project filled a gap in the middle-school curriculum and introduced an important and novel global perspective to the study of the ancient world, she said.

“These efforts were particularly welcome in California, since their beleaguered public school teachers are currently working with exceptionally low support for their efforts and many bureaucratic impediments,” Foley said. “… (T)he project should help to contribute to national literacy about geography.”

The American Philological Association was founded in 1869 and is the principal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures and civilizations.

Brief item from All Africa:

A Punic necropolis dating back to the 4th-5th century BC has been recently discovered at the museum of Sousse during extension and refurbishing works that started last May and are due to be completed by the end of the current year.

The works which are in being carried out in a museum characterized by a rich collection of mosaics will cost 2 million dinars.

A team of specialists from the National Heritage Institute (INP) is currently working on documents relative to this major historical discovery .

This discovery comes following last year's discovery of a roman burial vault located near the roman catacombs in the district of Bouhsina in Sousse .

The vault which is being restored by the INP, contains 2 tombs with the remains of some 13 members of the same family buried together along with sacred ceramic vessels.

Most of the Punic culture was destroyed as a result of the Punic wars between Rome and Carthage . This is why specialists are hoping that this discovery might shed a precious light on an important part of Tunisia 's history.

From the Hollister Freelance:

The Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (AD 15 - AD 68), had several confusing names. Yet, in the short form, Nero, everyone remembers him as the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned."

QED ...

ante diem iv kalendas februarias

164 B.C. -- death of Antiochus Epiphanes (according to one reckoning)

1 B.C. -- departure of Gaius Caesar to the east (?)

275 A.D. -- death of Aurelian (according to one reckoning, which doesn't seem right)

sylvan @ Dictionary.com

lucent @ Wordsmith

Lucullan @ Merriam-Webster

Forgotten Stars: Rediscovering Manilius’ Astronomica


University of Columbia, New York
24-25 October 2008

Co-organised by Katharina Volk (Columbia) and Steven Green (Leeds)
A major international conference on Manilius’ Astronomica, the first of its kind in the Anglophone world, will take place at Columbia University on 24-25 October 2008.

The Astronomica of Manilius is a five-book Stoic didactic poem on astrology which is usually believed to have been composed between c. A.D. 9-16, under Augustus and Tiberius. The poem offers great opportunity for diverse scholarly study, in terms of its genre and intertextuality, its philosophical, intellectual and socio-political background; and yet, but for a few notable exceptions, the poem has been largely ignored, especially by Anglophone scholars, whose silence would suggest compliance with the old-fashioned view that the Astronomica is too difficult to read and digest and/ or full of contradictions and astrological errors and omissions.

The planned conference aims to put this neglected poet firmly back on the scholarly map, and will bring together an international panel of Latinists, historians of science, and reception specialists to approach the author and his work from a variety of different angles.

Further details will appear in due course on the websites of the Classics Departments at the Universities of Columbia and Leeds. There will also be a further announcement to this e-list in due course.

Below is a list of confirmed speakers with provisional paper titles.

Josèphe-Henriette Abry (Lyon)
Cosmos and Imperium: the Excursus of the Astronomica


Elaine Fantham (Princeton/Toronto)
TBA

Monica Gale (Trinity College Dublin)
Digressions, Intertextuality and Ideology in Didactic Poetry: The Case of Manilius

Patrick Glauthier (Columbia)
Economic Metaphors in Manilius

Steven Green (Leeds)
The Poetics and Politics of Horoscopic Failure in Manilius’ Astronomica

Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California)
TBA

Stephan Heilen (University of Illinois)
The Bonicontrius Commentary on Manilius

John Henderson (Cambridge)
TBA

Wolfgang Hübner (Münster)
Tropes and Figures: Manilian Style reflecting Astrological Lore


Duncan Kennedy (Bristol)
Manilius’ Metaphors

Daryn Lehoux (Manchester)
Myth, Math, and Manilius

Wolfgang Mann (Columbia)
The Manuscript Tradition of Manilius

Caroline Stark (Yale)
TBA

James Uden (Columbia)
TBA

Katharina Volk (Columbia)
In Heaven as it is on Earth?: Manilian Self-contradictions

From the Art Newspaper (not sure how long this one will survive online):

Operation Ghelas, which has dismantled a major Italian antiquities smuggling operation stretching across Western Europe, will come to a climax in February when 70 defendants are brought before a judge for a preliminary hearing in Gela, southwest Sicily. The investigation, carried out by the Italian Cultural Patrimony Protection (TPC) squad, concluded last summer with an unprecedented 85 indictments and 52 arrests—the biggest bust ever of the tombaroli (“tomb raiders”).

Government officials, teachers and plumbers are among the suspects. Fifteen have already pleaded guilty to various charges, among them carabiniere Carmine Maschio, who admitted to driving loot across the Swiss-Italian border.

Alessandro Sutera Sardo, the public prosecutor, says that more than 2,000 antiquities were recovered, such as amphorae, statues, and coins from major archaeological sites in Sicily, including Morgantina, Syracuse, Selinunte, and Gela, as well as in Puglia and Lazio. He said the “four-celled” network of international collaborators distributed stolen antiquities through intermediaries in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the US, including Munich’s Gorny & Mosch auction house.

The hunt began three years ago after Sicilian police confiscated antiquities and metal detectors from several residents of Gela—notably 43-year-old Orazio Pellegrino, the ringleader of one of the four “cells”—and put them under surveillance. “When we wiretapped their phones, we intercepted frequent conversations to a number in Switzerland, so we realised that they might be selling antiquities to someone there,” Mr Sutera Sardo said.

This led to Francesco Davoli, an Italian taxi driver living in Zurich. With the cooperation of Swiss authorities, his house was searched. Ivo Hoppler, the Swiss prosecutor, told us: “Davoli left to go to work at around 4.30am. We arrived at 6am, and searched for two hours. We found coins packaged in plastic display envelopes.” The taxi driver quickly became the primary informant on the case, fingering several associates and eventually leading police to the Barcelona gallery of Bea Felix Cervera, a well-known dealer.

“We went in with the Spanish policemen and found a hidden door. When he opened it we could not believe our eyes: there were hundreds of precious objects, the majority clearly illegal,” Mr Sutera Sardo told us. The most precious object the Sicilian police recognised was an ancient Roman marble basin that had been stolen from a private house in Rome. The gallery owner is being prosecuted in Spain, and the government has formally invited Italy to take back much of the haul.

The insights gained in Operation Ghelas have furnished leads for other investigations, which have taken the Sicilian TPC squad to Rome in recent weeks.

... hmm ... why is this the first we've heard of Operation Ghelas?

UPDATE: See now David Gill's useful comments on this ...

6.00 p.m. |HINT|History's Mysteries: The Roman Emperors
When the power of Rome was concentrated into the hands of supreme rulers, the empire began to corrode as the emperors led lives of increasing depravity. We'll visit their mansions to get an inside look at the splendor--and squalor--in which they lived, and insight into their sometimes inexplicable acts.

8.00 p.m. |HISTC| LOST WORLDS (2006) | First Christians, The
A team of field investigators uncovers the clues that will recreate vanished or hidden worlds. They use the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology to take us back. The 1st century AD. In the aftermath of Jesus’ crucifixion barely a hundred of his followers survive. Persecuted by the authorities, they are a cult on the verge of extinction. Yet within a few decades the new religion of Christianity will have thousands of believers spread around the Mediterranean and across the Roman Empire. The man responsible is St Paul. Once a fanatical persecutor of Jesus’ followers, he undergoes a miraculous conversion, and gives his life to spreading the gospel.

HINT = History International

HISTC = History Television (Canada)


... I note that PBS will be showing Secrets of the Parthenon tonight on NOVA ... check local listings.

ante diem v kalendas februarias

98 A.D. -- dies imperii of Trajan

198 A.D. -- festival in celebration of Severus' victory over the Parthians; possibly concurrent: dies imperii of Caracalla

neophyte @ Dictionary.com

cingular @ Wordsmith

The conclusion of an opinion piece in the Financial Times:

However, there is something else about the memo that worries me more. Accenture’s website reveals that, unlike Martin Lukes, Mr Foster has a classics degree from Oxford. I had always thought the point of studying classics was that it trained your mind and your pen. What this memo shows is that two decades at Accenture have a more potent effect on befuddling the mind than three years of Aeschylus and Horace ever had on sharpening it.

6.00 p.m. |HINT| History's Mysteries: Lost City of Atlantis
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the fabled missing continent. Even South American Indian legend told of a similar tale. Did a highly civilized and technologically advanced people disappear with their secrets at the bottom of the sea, or is Atlantis merely myth?

9.00 p.m. |HISTC| ROME | an Owl In a Thornbush
Scouting for Caesar some 30 miles from Rome, Pullo, Vorenus and some Ubian soldiers meet minimal resistance from a green group of Pompey recruits. Alarmed at the speed with which Caesar’s army has advanced, and with a less-than-full complement of soldiers at his disposal, Pompey makes an unusual tactical decision: abandon Rome to Caesar, at least temporarily. The order forces patrician families to choose sides – while Servilia, Caesar’s longtime lover, decides to stay in Rome, her son, Marcus Junius Brutus, flees the city with others faithful to Pompey. After seeing her family’s fortunes fall and rise in the course of a few hours, Atia enlists her mercenary, Timon, to ensure her family’s security. As Vorenus marvels that Rome has been left undefended, Pullo sees his uncanny good fortune continue after his unit intercepts a cargo wagon on the city’s outskirts.

HINT = History International

HISTC = History Television (Canada)

Assorted items that have made it to my mailbox ... in no particular order:

An item I've been meaning to mention in these pages is the Lampeter Working Papers in Classics page ... it's admitted models are the Princeton/Stanford Working Papers ... hopefully more institutions/groups will jump on this bandwagon ...

If not, perhaps more academic types might make the jump to blogging with the Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting approach ... for an example of what might come from this, see Alun Salt's commentary on Peter Heslin's article in JRS on the Horologium Augusti ...

The Compitum website/blog(?) (in French) is covering research into the Roman world and Latin in French universities ...

Rita Auden, the accomplished-in-her-own-right niece of W.H. Auden died recently and her obit ends with this tidbit:

Rita Auden loved music (notably Mozart) and was fascinated by ancient history, especially Egyptology. Her New Year's resolution, made a few days before her death, was to study ancient Greek so that she could read Plato in the original.

(tip o' the pileus to Tim Parking for that one)

From Harper's this week, we find out from Juvenal Why we fight (tip o' the pileus to Mata Kimasatayo) ...

As always (but I don't always mention it), the weekly version of our Ancient World on Television listings have been posted, as has Explorator 10.40 ...

This is a call for papers, articles and artwork for next issue of An
academic and religious journal of Greek, Roman, and Persian Studies.

Mithras Reader: An academic and religious journal of Greek, Roman, and
Persian Studies is dedicated to all the religions of the classical
world. We invite submissions of academic papers from researchers and
spiritual articles from practitioners of religions of the classical
world. We also welcome classical world based art work both modern
interpretations and traditional forms.

Journal web site is: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21156719816
Where discussions can also take place.

Occasional articles covering the non-religious aspects of the ancient
Greco-Roman or Persian world will be considered, for example dealing
with geopolitical, cultural or military history.

The journal is divided into three sections. Part 1 contains the
academic papers, part 2 Mithraic based art work, sculptures and
paintings, and Part 3 religious articles by modern practitioners,
rites, hymns and poetry. Authors should state which section they wish
their papers to be included in.

We cannot afford to pay for contributions however authors will receive
a copy of the issue in which their article appears. All articles
featured in the journal remain the copyright of their authors and
artists.

Materials are to be submitted in English and should not exceed 9000
words. Materials are to be submitted electronically e.g. word.doc.
References should be numbered in the text and appear as numbered
endnotes at end of article. The bibliography should also come at end
of the article. Authors are solely responsible for obtaining copyright
permission for any copyrighted image or text that they include in
their papers.

Book/Film/Music reviews are also welcomed.

Advertising space is also available.

If interested in submitting material, please have a look at the
previous issue at:
http://www.amazon.com/Mithras-Reader-academic-religious-Studies/dp/1905524099/
to familiarize yourself with the journal style.

The dead line for submission of material is Spring Equinox (21st March
2008)

For further info and copy of our submission guidelines please email us
at: nabarz AT hotmail.com

P. Nabarz
Editor.

http://www.myspace.com/nabarz

The Ontario Classical Association cordially invites you to our Spring Meeting in memory of

Honorary President,
Dr. Alexander G. (Sandy) McKay
On Saturday, April 5th, 2008 in the Council Chambers
Room 111, Gilmour Hall
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario



The OCA gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance of the E. Togo Salmon Fund and the Classics Department of McMaster University.



“Vergil and Campania“Campania”

9:00-9:30 a.m. Registration

9:30-9:45 a.m. Welcome by OCA President, Mr. Stephen Low, Humberside Collegiate

9:45-10:45 a.m. Dr. Karl Galinsky, University of Texas at Austin ,“Vergil and Campania”

10:45-11:00 a.m. Break

11:00-12:00 p.m. Mr. Iain Scott, Opera-IS , Vergil and Opera”

12:00-12:45 p.m. OCA Annual General Meeting

1:00-2:30 p.m. Lunch

2:30-3:00 p.m. Dr. Michele George, McMaster University, “To Live and Die in Campania”

3:00-3:30 p.m. Dr. Jonathan Edmondson, York University, “The Delights of Baiae”

3:30-3:45 p.m. Break

3:45-4:30 p.m. Dr. Alison Keith, University of Toronto, “Ovid on Vergil’s Campania”

4:30 p.m. Adjournment





Title: Mr. Mrs. Ms. Dr. Name: ____________________________

Institution: ____________________________________

e-mail address: ____________________________________ Vegetarian Option? _____

Membership: OCA Other: _____________________________

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Name and Title of Guests: _____________________________ Vegetarian Option? _____

_____________________________ Vegetarian Option? _____

If arriving on Friday evening, please indicate if you would like to join others at a local restaurant

for an informal dinner. YES _____ NO_____

Regular: ________ X $50.00= _____________

TOTAL: __________

Student: ________ X $35.00= _____________



Please send all registration forms and cheques, payable to the Ontario Classical Association, by March 1st, 2008, to:

Dr. Jonathan Edmondson

Department of History

2178 Vari Hall

York University

4700 Keele Street

Toronto, Ontario

M3J 1P3



We invite all our guests requiring accommodations to make arrangements with Visitor’s Inn, 649 Main

Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, (905) 529-6979, or toll free at 1-800-387-4620 or www.visitorsinn.com.

Please request the McMaster rate when reserving your accommodations.

From Scholia:

Victoria Emma Pagán, Rome and the Literature of Gardens

Barbara Goward, Aeschylus: Agamemnon


From Aestimatio

Carl A. Huffman, Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, Philosopher and Mathematician King

Daniel W. Graham, Explaining the Cosmos: The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy

Ingvild Saelid Gilhus, Animals, Gods and Humans: Changing Attitudes to Animals in Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Times

From RBL:

John M. G. Barclay, trans., Flavius Josephus: Against Apion, Review of Biblical Literature

From CJ-Online:

Wilfried Stroh, Latein ist tot, es lebe Latein.

From BMCR

Sarah B. Pomeroy, The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity.

Antonio Aloni, Da Pilo a Sigeo. Poemi cantori e scrivani al tempo dei Tiranni.

Lowell Edmunds, Oedipus. Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World.

Mogens Herman Hansen, Polis. An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State.

Stephane Benoist (ed.), Memoire et histoire: les procedures de condamnation dans l'antiquite romaine.

Edith Hall, The Theatrical Cast of Athens. Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society.

Emanuele Lelli, Volpe e leone. Il proverbio nella poesia greca (Alceo, Cratino, Callimaco). Filologia e critica, 93.

Nancy Shumate, Nation, Empire, Decline: Studies in Rhetorical Continuity from the Romans to the Modern Era. Classical Interfaces, vol. 5.

G. Emmenegger, Der Text des koptischen Psalters aus Al-Mudil. Ein Beitrag zur Textgeschichte der Septuaginta und zur Textkritik koptischer Bibelhandschriften, mit der kritischen Neuausgabe des Papyrus 37 der British Library London (U) und des Papyrus 39 der Leipziger Universitaetsbibliothek (2013). Text und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 159.

Josef Wiesehoefer, Phillip Huyse, Eran und Aneran: Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt. Oriens et Occidens 13.

Claudia Moatti, Wolfgang Kaiser, Gens de passage en Mediterranee de l'Antiquite a l'e/poque moderne. Procedures de controle et d'identification. L'Atelier Mediterraneen.

Foteini Kolovou, Die Briefe des Eustathios von Thessalonike: Einleitung, Regesten, Text, Indizes.

Eleonora Cavallini (ed.), Omero mediatico. Aspetti della ricezione omerica nella civilta\ contemporanea. Atti delle Giornate di Studio, Ravenna, 18-19 gennaio 2006. NEMO. Confrontarsi con l'antico, 7.

G.W. Bowersock (trans.), Lorenzo Valla, On the Donation of Constantine. The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 24.

"Coins and Identity"
The Friends of Numismatics invites submissions for papers for the 2009
American Philological Association/Archaeological Institute of America
annual meetings, January 8-11, 2009, in Philadelphia, PA, on the
topic of coins and identity.

What did a coin mean to the person arranging its creation? What did it mean
to a person using the coin? What did it mean to a person hoarding or
collecting the coin? Papers should focus on coins of the Greek and Roman
worlds, in order to place them within the contexts of coin types and
iconography, their use of congruence in types or metrology, or their place
in collections of ancient coins or hoards.

Please submit an abstract of a maximum of 250 words to
Karen Manning
Dept of Ancient and Byzantine Art and Numismatics
Harvard University Art Museums
32 Quincy St
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone 617-495-3393
Fax 617-495-5506

The abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by at least two reviewers.
Since the Friends of Numismatics sponsors a joint panel of the APA and AIA,
submitters must be members in good standing of only one of these
organizations.

POSITION AVAILABLE
HEAD LIBRARIAN OF THE BLEGEN LIBRARY

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) invites applications and nominations
for the position of Head Librarian of the Carl W. Blegen Library. The American School of Classical
Studies at Athens (ASCSA) is one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions
dedicated to the advanced study of all aspects of Greek culture, from antiquity to the present
day. Founded in 1881, the ASCSA provides graduate students and scholars from some 180 affiliated
North American colleges and universities a base for research and study in Greece. The ASCSA
operates two major research libraries in Athens (The Blegen Library and the Gennadius Library),
supports archaeological research and excavations in the ancient agora of Athens, in Corinth, and
elsewhere in Greece, and disseminates information about its research through an active
publications program.

The ASCSA is a primary resource for American and international graduate students and scholars in
Hellenic studies, from antiquity to the present day. The Blegen Library is a non-circulating
library dedicated to the entire field of classical antiquity, with special emphasis on the
language, literature, art, history and archaeology of Greece, with 90,000 volumes, ca. 700 print
periodical subscriptions, and ca. 200 electronic subscriptions. The Gennadius Library, with
113,000 volumes and extensive archives, is devoted to post-classical Hellenic civilization.
Although both libraries serve primarily a constituency of North American students and scholars,
there is a large group of international library users, including many Greek scholars.

Key responsibilities of the Head Librarian of the Blegen Library are as follows:
-Provides leadership for the Blegen Library. Position reports to the Director of the School in
Athens;
- Manages the transition from a distributed model of information management to an integrated
technical services unit serving both the Blegen and Gennadius Libraries;
-In collaboration with the Managing Committee, Trustees, and staff of the School monitors change,
thinks strategically, and sets future directions for the Library, blending an appreciation of
print materials and the traditions of the School with the electronic needs of a modern library;
-Provides leadership for creating and implementing an integrated collections development plan
including digital materials, working in collaboration with the Director of the Gennadius Library,
the Archivist, academic staff and committees of the School;

-Manages the library facility of approximately 1,735 sq. feet of stacks and office spaces and
2,800 m. of shelf space; manages the Library's operating budget of approximately $315,000 for
FY2008 (exclusive of salaries); and supervises a library staff of four full time employees, two
part time, and occasional volunteers;
-Oversees the collections of the library, including the acquisition, cataloging and indexing of
print and electronic materials and the maintenance and preservation of library resources in both
print and electronic formats;
-Provides guidance and instruction for students, faculty, and visiting scholars in the use of
print and electronic materials in ancient Mediterranean philological, literary, historical,
archaeological, and art historical research;
-Works with colleagues at related research libraries in Greece and abroad to develop and promote
collaborative efforts. Works especially closely with the library of the British School at Athens
in an electronic union catalogue and other shared initiatives;
-Advocates for the Library and assists in on-going fundraising efforts for Library, including the
occasional writing of grant proposals;
-Oversees the Library's web presence and takes a leadership role in the continuing development of
a centralized digital repository for ASCSA's electronic information resources.

Position requirements:
-ALA-accredited MLS or its equivalent;
-Strong, demonstrated managerial skills, with substantial experience in a library environment,
including significant managerial experience;
-As a minimum, BA in classics or classical archaeology or related field; MA or PhD preferred.
Expertise in one of the disciplines of the Blegen's collection (classics, prehistoric and/or
classical archaeology, ancient history, history of ancient art); knowledge of relevant languages;
-Demonstrated skills and experience in relevant information technology, including its use and
management, and possessing a comprehensive understanding of the technology-driven information
environment, including institutional repository development;
-Understanding of unique needs of a graduate research library and familiarity with current issues
in academic librarianship;
-Knowledge of best practices and current trends in managing academic libraries and serving library
constituencies;
-Excellent communication, computer, organizational, and interpersonal skills;
-Specific experience working with Ex Libris' ALEPH highly desirable.
Salary commensurate with experience. Generous benefits package. Successful candidate will be
expected to live and work in Athens, Greece.

Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Send a
letter of application, a curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference to Professor Susan
Rotroff, Chair, Committee on Personnel, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 6 - 8
Charlton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540-5232 or email application to ascsa AT ascsa.org. Website:
http://www.ascsa.edu.gr. ASCSA is an EO/AA employer.

Suzanne Musin sent this one in (thanks!):



Dinosaur Comics

From PhysOrg:

Since 1974, archaeologists from Granada, directed by professors Trinidad Nájera Colino and Fernando Molina González, have been working on the site of the Motilla del Azuer, in the municipal area of Daimiel (province of Ciudad Real), in search of the necessary information to reconstruct the day by day in this thrilling and unknown historical period.

The sites, known as “motillas”, represent one of the most peculiar types of prehistoric settlements in the Iberian Peninsula. They occupied the region of La Mancha in the Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500 BC, and they are artificial mounds, 4 to 10 m high, a result of the destruction of a stone fortification of central plan with several concentric walled lines. Its distribution in the plain of La Mancha, with equidistanes of 4 to 5 kilometres, affects river meadows and low areas where the existence of pools was quite frequent until recent dates.

Although they were already known since the end of the 19th century, the “motillas” were erroneously considered to be burial mounds until the middle of the seventies, when the start of the research work on the Motilla del Azuer carried out by the University of Granada and sponsored by the Department of Culture of Castile La Mancha showed that it was a fortification, surrounded by a small settlement and a necropolis. It has been the first site of this kind to be excavated in a scientific and systematic way.

The mound of the fortification which has been recovered has a diameter of about 50 metres, and is composed of a tower, two walled enclosures and a large courtyard. The central core is composed of a tower of masonry of square plan, with 7 metres high east and west fronts and an interior accessible through ramps inlaid in narrow corridors, which confer a particular nature to the place.

The researchers of the UGR explain that settlement of the Azuer contains the oldest well found in the Iberian Peninsula. The inside of this type of walled enclosures protected basic resources such as water, collected from the phreatic stratum through the well, and was also used to store and process cereals on a large scale, to keep the livestock occasionally and to product pottery and other home-made products, whose remains have also been found.

The site of the Motilla del Azuer has been possible thanks to the close collaboration between the Council of Communities of Castile la Mancha and the Public Service of Employment of Castile La Mancha (SEPECAM), who have financed the works, and the University of Granada, thanks to the archaeologists of the GEPRAN, who have also had the support of the Town Council of Daimiel (Ciudad Real).

From Fox:

Marine archaeologists will begin work in June to uncover the sand-buried hull of a 2,300-year-old cargo ship thought to have been ferrying wine from the Aegean island of Chios before it sank off Cyprus' southern coast, researchers said Thursday.

The vessel, dating from the late Classical period (mid-fourth century B.C.) is one of only a few such ships to have been found so well-preserved, said University of Cyprus visiting marine archaeologist Stella Demesticha.

"The shipwreck looks very promising about shedding light on the nautical and economic history of the period in the east Mediterranean," Demesticha told the Associated Press on Thursday.

The wreck rests on the seabed at a depth of 144 feet some 1 1/2 miles off the island's southern coast.

Demesticha said the wreck was also unique because it lies at a depth that divers can easily reach, unlike similar discoveries found in deeper waters.

Unreleased underwater photographs that researchers took of the vessel on initial surveying dives in November show a jumble of dozens of amphorae — clay urns used in antiquity to carry liquids and solid foodstuffs — lying on the seabed in the shape of the ship.

Demesticha said researchers believe the ship's hull to be buried under tons of sand. The amphorae closely resemble others found to contain Chios wine, but may have been used to transport other goods in ancient sea trade.

The discovery could also provide more clues into Cyprus' role in maritime trade during the last phases of the Cypriot city-kingdoms, researchers said.

Cypriot research divers will start the next surveying phase in early June said Demesticha, followed by another in October. The project is being undertaken by the University of Cyprus' Archaeology Research Unit and is being funded by the Thetis Foundation, a private institution that protects underwater cultural heritage.

The ship appears to be a contemporary of the famed Kyrenia ship, a 50-foot merchant vessel that another Greek Cypriot diver accidentally discovered off the island's northern coast more than four decades ago.

ante diem xi kalendas februarias

Ludi Palatini (day 4)

Sementivae or Paganalia (day 1) -- Sementivae was a festival of sowing which was actually a moveable feast (although I'm not sure of the moveability criteria; I'm guessing that the first day falls between January 24 and 26). By Ovid's time it appears to have been coincident with Paganalia, which also obviously has some rural aspect to it. It appears to have been a two-day festival with an interval of seven days between (corrections on this welcome ... my sources seem muddled on this one)

41 A.D. -- murder of Gaius (Caligula); Claudius proclaimed emperor by the praetorian guard

76 A.D. -- birth of the future emperor Hadrian

nolens volens @ Dictionary.com

pinguidity @ Worthless Word for the Day

cabal @ Merriam-Webster

Brief item from the Times:

Two “extremely important” gold coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor from the 3rd century AD have been unearthed by a farmer in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire area. They relate to the Roman commander Carausius, who declared himself Emperor of Britain around 286 or 287 after the Emperor in Rome ordered his execution. He was overthrown in a coup d’état by his finance minister, Allectus, in 293.

The coins were handed in to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and moved to the British Museum. The scheme is facing a freeze in funding, despite recording more than 314,000 discoveries that have revealed many new archaeological sites. The farmer’s identity is not being revealed because archaeologists are to explore the site.

I'm not sure whether the photos accompanying the original article are of the actual coins found ...

From AP comes:

Archaeologists in northeast Syria have unearthed a 3rd century cemetery in the shape of a cross, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday.

Ten skeletons, along with pottery and coins, were found at the site in Hassaka, 441 miles northeast of the capital Damascus, SANA reported.

Some of the artifacts contained inscriptions in the ancient Aramaic language, it said.

Wednesday's find came a day after SANA reported that archaeologists had found a Roman-era cemetery in Latakia, northwest of Damascus. That cemetery was believed to date back about 1,000 years, SANA said.

Also according to the report, Wednesday's find is not the same as that of another cemetery, of the same era and on the same location, announced last November.

That Roman-era cemetery in this history-rich country were archaeological discoveries are common, was also in the shape of a cross. It was not immediately clear how far from each other the two cemeteries are.

From a UPenn Museum press release:

The Greek traveler, Pausanias, living in the second century, CE, would probably recognize the spectacular site of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion, and particularly the altar of Zeus. At 4,500 feet above sea level, atop the altar provides a breathtaking, panoramic vista of Arcadia.

“On the highest point of the mountain is a mound of earth, forming an altar of Zeus Lykaios, and from it most of the Peloponnesos can be seen,” wrote Pausanias, in his famous, well-respected multi-volume Description of Greece. “Before the altar on the east stand two pillars, on which there were of old gilded eagles. On this altar they sacrifice in secret to Lykaion Zeus. I was reluctant to pry into the details of the sacrifice; let them be as they are and were from the beginning.”

What would surprise Pausanias—as it is surprising archaeologists—is how early that “beginning” actually may be. New pottery evidence from excavations by the Greek-American, interdisciplinary team of the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project indicates that the ash altar—a cone of earth located atop the southern peak of Mt Lykaion where dedications were made in antiquity— was in use as early as 5,000 years ago—at least 1,000 years before the early Greeks began to worship the god Zeus.

In addition, a rock crystal seal, bearing an image of a bull, of probable Late Minoan times (1500-1400 BCE) and also found on the altar, suggests an intriguing early connection between the Minoan isle of Crete and Arcadia, and bears witness to another chapter in what now appears to be an especially long history of activity atop the mountain.

David Gilman Romano, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and a co-director of the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, speaks about the excavation, and recent discoveries, at a Penn Museum event Wednesday, January 30, 6:00 p.m.:

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/events/calitem.php?which=14

“Mt. Lykaion, Arcadia is known from ancient literature as one of the mythological birthplaces of Zeus, the other being on Crete,” noted Dr.Romano. “The fact that the ash altar to Zeus includes early material dating back to 3000 BCE suggests that the tradition of devotion to some divinity on that spot is very ancient. The altar is long standing and may in fact pre-date the introduction of Zeus in the Greek world. We don’t yet know how the altar was first used, and whether it was used in connection with natural phenomena such as wind, rain, light or earthquakes, possibly to worship some kind of divinity male or female or a personification representing forces of nature.” Below the altar in a mountain meadow is an ancient hippodrome, a stadium and buildings related to the ancient athletic festival that rivaled the neighboring sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia.

Although the Sanctuary of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion, just 22 miles from the extensively-studied Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, has been well known since antiquity, no excavations had taken place there in a century. The Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, begun in 2004 with the first seasons of excavation work in 2006 and 2007, is a collaborative project of the Greek Archaeological Service, 39th Ephoreia in Tripolis, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the University of Arizona.

David Gilman Romano of the University of Pennsylvania Museum co-directs the project with Michaelis Petropoulos of the Greek Archaeological Service in Tripolis, and Mary Voyatzis of the University of Arizona.

High in the Arcadian mountains, the sanctuary at Mt. Lykaion was well known in antiquity as one of the most famous Zeus shrines in ancient Greece, as well as a site of early athletics in honor of the Greek’s greatest god. The site, which features an ancient hippodrome, a stadium and buildings related to the ancient athletic festival that rivaled the neighboring sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, is known to have served as an important Pan Arcadian as well as Pan Hellenic Sanctuary that attracted pilgrims, athletes and dignitaries from all over the Greek world from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic period, ca. 700-200 BCE.

Last summer, a small excavation trench in the altar yielded Early, Middle and Late Helladic, ca. 3000-1200 BCE pottery sherds, indicating activity in this region from as early as 3000 BCE. The new material creates a vastly different account of the history of the altar and the site.

The intriguing discovery of one rock crystal lens-shaped seal bearing the image of a bull with full frontal face, likely of Late Minoan I or Late Minoan II date (1500-1400 BC), has, as of yet, no related materials to accompany it—but it does show at least some early connection between the two cultural areas.

Early 20th century excavations of the Greek Archaeological Society at the altar suggested the earliest activity there to be about 700 BCE, and the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project excavation found much evidence for activity in later periods: pottery and objects from the Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods (900-200 BCE), including miniature vases, bronze tripods and rings, iron blades, an iron spit, and silver coins, were excavated from the trench.

Several ancient authors mention that human sacrifice was practiced at the altar of Zeus—Pausanias alludes to mysterious sacrificial practices in his Descriptions of Greece—but to date, no evidence has been found. A considerable amount of animal bones was recovered from the altar excavations, with analysis underway, but preliminary results indicate large and small animal bones of various kinds, and no human bones.

The Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project boasts a Greek-American, interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, geologists, geophysicists, architects, topographical surveyors and students working throughout the site. The project will continue excavations at the altar, and other areas of the sanctuary, in 2008, with plans to continue work through 2010, and a long-range proposal under consideration to develop an archaeological park to unify and protect nearly 300 square kilometers of land in and around the site. The project maintains a public website:

http://lykaionexcavation.org

From Newsday (I tried to get this one in yesterday, but couldn't connect):

Feats of sport and physical activity have inspired poets and writers from Walt Whitman to Norman Mailer. But rarely has a work of literature ignited or inspired a new sporting event.

Such was the case with Robert Browning's 1879 poem, "Pheidippides."

Browning was 67 years old when he alloyed myth and historical fact to create a 118-line-long poem about an obscure character of Greek antiquity named Pheidippides. The narrative that would help spark the emergence of the modern marathon movement is recounted in the new film "Spirit of the Marathon" as well as in Benjamin Cheever's recently published book on running, "Strides: Running Through History With an Unlikely Athlete" (Rodale).

Browning borrowed from an account by the Greek historian Herodotus about a professional courier who, in 490 BC, had been dispatched from Athens to Sparta to ask for assistance against an imminent Persian invasion. The messenger, named Pheidippides or Philippides (depending on the source), covered the 130 miles between the two cities in one day, to relay his message that "the Athenians beseech you to hasten to their aid and not allow that state to be enslaved by Barbarians."

The Spartans, in the midst of a feast, took their time in responding to the messenger's request. Luckily for the Athenians, they didn't need the Spartans' help in beating the Persians on the plains of Marathon.

At the end of the battle, the later historian Plutarch wrote, two other messengers were dispatched with news of the victory. One of them, named Eucles, had been wounded in the battle. Yet, he managed to cover the approximately 25-mile distance from Marathon to Athens on foot, barged into the first house he came upon, proclaimed, "God save you, we are well," and dropped dead.

Browning combined the Herodotus story with accounts from both Plutarch and yet a third chronicler named Lucian, then threw in a side plot about the runner's run-in with the Greek god Pan on the way to Sparta. In Browning's version it is Pheidippides who takes the message after the battle and, upon reaching not a dwelling but the court of Athens, collapses after a more pulse-pounding exit line: "Rejoice, we conquer!"

The poem appeared as part of a popular collection of Browning's poems called "Dramatic Idylls." Twenty years later, inspired by the revived and dramatic legend of Pheidippides, organizers of the first modern Olympics in Athens included an event that was never part of the ancient Greek Games; a 40-kilometer (24.8-mile) run from the site of the battle to the city.

The run became known as the "Marathon."

Now this is interesting ... back when that Artemis and the Stag sculpture was coming to auction, Al Schlaf and I were chatting via email and I voiced my suspicions about the authenticity of the thing. Specifically, I suggested there was something not 'quite right' with it. I deleted his response (alas) but I also recall the Apollo Belvedere came up in the conversation. In any event, imagine my interest when I read the beginning of a lengthy piece in Spiegel:

The packed auction room at Sotheby's in New York was filled with feverish anticipation when, on June 7, 2007, assistants wearing white gloves rolled a delicate bronze statue about a meter (39 inches) tall into the room. According to the auction catalog, the bronze sculpture, titled "Artemis and the Stag," was a depiction of the Roman goddess of the hunt.

The sculpture was of a young girl with shining eyes, the folds of her knee-length robe draped suggestively over her body. A spokesman for the auction house raved about the sculpture, calling it "among the most beautiful works of art surviving from antiquity." The masterpiece promptly set off a vigorous bidding war.

A man from the sheikdom of Qatar offered the first bid, and an unknown man wearing a suit promptly countered with a higher bid. After that the bidding went up in $100,000 (€69,000) increments with each wave of a hand. When the duel stalled at $12 million, a new bidder seated at the rear of the room suddenly joined the fray.

The auctioneer's hammer finally came down with a bang at $25.5 million ($28.6 million, including the Sotheby's fee). The sculpture went to Giuseppe Eskenazi, a 68-year-old London art dealer, who promptly had the valuable piece flown to mainland Europe for his unidentified client.

It was the highest price every paid for a Roman sculpture. Even Sotheby's called the sale "absolutely astonishing."

But the new owner, rumored to be a Russian, could soon be disappointed. In a report SPIEGEL has obtained, Stefan Lehmann, an archeologist from the eastern German city of Halle, raises doubts about the piece. He is troubled by the "unexpressive face and seemingly perfect condition" of the sculpture. At first glance, writes Lehmann, the sculpture reminds him of a "classical work from the period around 1800."

Josef Floren, the German author of a handbook titled "The Greek Sculpture," is also skeptical. The "box-shaped base" on which the goddess is standing seems "modern." Floren is also perplexed by the clothing the young woman is wearing. "Something resembling a shawl or a veil is draped across her shoulders. No one in Rome walked around like that."

The rest of the article is a good read, of course. In any event, the face of this particular Artemis has always struck me as looking more 'Victorian' (for want of a better word) than Hellenistic and I think the same about the Belvedere Apollo (which is obviously pre-Victorian, but I don't think it's ancient). The 'hand gestures' of the Artemis also have always seemed odd to me. The Artemis was apparently found at an Italian construction site in the 1920s, we are told, and made its way to Buffalo in 1953 apparently through some very clear and above-the-board transactions.

Now something's just popped into my head and I need to write it down before I forget it. Does anyone else see the similarity between the hair and face of the Artemis and the Stag (the best photo I can find is this one) and the Apollo Sauroktonos lurking in the back rooms of the Cleveland Museum of Art? It might be just me, but the hand fragment also strikes me as 'in the same vein' (although not identical). An item in the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the provenance (we are told) story:

The museum first learned about the Apollo in April 2003, when Bennett visited the Phoenix gallery in Geneva. Impressed, he called Reid, who asked that the Apollo be sent to Cleveland for what turned out to be a year of scrutiny.

Bennett said the gallery refused to tell him from whom it had bought the work. And while the gallery provided photographs of the sculpture undergoing a restoration recently, the dealers told the curator they didn't know who did the work.

Instead, the gallery referred Bennett to Walter, who said the work had been in the collection of his family since the early 1930s, on an estate in Lausitz, a region east of Dresden.

The communist government of East Germany confiscated the estate after World War II. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Walter filed a successful claim to repossess it. He said he found the Apollo lying in pieces on the floor of a manor house, in 1993 or 1994, according to Bennett.

In 1994, the lawyer showed the sculpture to Lucia Marinescu, a Romanian scholar. But her response apparently did nothing to convince Walter to keep the work.

Walter told Bennett and Reid that he sold the piece later in 1994 to a Dutch art dealer for 1,600 Deutschmarks, or $1,250 in 2004 dollars, thinking it was an 18th- or 19th-century garden ornament.

Walter also told the museum he couldn't remember the dealer's name, and that he has no receipt.

Marinescu lectured about the sculpture at an international conference on ancient bronzes, held in Bucharest in May 2003. That was a month after the sculpture was shipped from Geneva to Cleveland.

Bennett said Marinescu hasn't shared with the museum the photographs she took during her 1994 visit to Walter. Through an interpreter, Marinescu declined to be interviewed.

The museum believes that the Apollo changed hands several times while moving from Germany to the Netherlands and Switzerland. But there's no paper trail.

Of course, this Apollo is one which is being claimed by Greece and also by Italy. Interesting, though, that both surface, maybe, between the wars ... one thinks of Alceo Dossena, but I've never seen any of his fakes on the scale of these pieces. Continuing the idle speculation, I wonder how many ancient fakes have made it to the market via Nazi looting in WWII ...

ante diem x kalendas februarias

ludi palatini (day 3) -- the theatrefest continues

effusive @ Dictionary.com

preterlapsed @ Worthless Word for the Day

From the Union Tribune:

Thousands of trees will be planted at the fire-ravaged birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games to restore the area ahead of the Beijing 2008 flame-lighting ceremony in March, officials said Tuesday.

Work is expected to start next week at the 2,800-year-old site of Ancient Olympia, where lush forests were wiped out by August's wildfires that killed 66 people in southern Greece.

“There will be teams working day and night; we have to meet the deadline,” said Maria Mathioudi, general secretary of Greece's National Agricultural Research Foundation, which drew up the rescue plan.

The replanting has been delayed for more than two months, and Greece's Olympic Committee warned last week that unless work starts soon the country risks “international disrepute.”

The plans approved Tuesday by senior Culture Ministry officials aim to restore the area according to the descriptions of ancient writers. Workers will be planting cypresses, olive trees, pines, poplars and Judas trees up to 8 feet tall, as well as laurel and oleander bushes. Some 30,000 trees and bushes are to be in place by mid-March.

The ancient Games were held in Olympia between 776 B.C. and A.D. 394. Forests around the site were obliterated by Greece's worst wildfires on record, but firefighters kept the flames at bay just short of the ruined temples and stadium.

The replanting will cost $3.9 million, to be covered by a donation from the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, which is providing an additional $1.9 million for replanting around Ancient Olympia by 2010.

The flame-lighting ritual, scheduled for March 24, has been held at Ancient Olympia before every Olympics since the 1936 Berlin Games.

Kneeling in front of the ruined Temple of Hera, an actress in the white gown and sandals of an ancient high priestess lights the Olympic flame using a concave mirror to focus the sun's heat on a silver torch.

The flame is transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony.

Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history – an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that will cross five continents.

From the obituary of Albert Bowker, former chancellor of Berkeley:

In 1996, he donned a toga to join former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien at a UC Berkeley archaeological site in Ancient Nemea, Greece, for a barefoot race with hundreds of people from around the world. The event recreated footraces once held there during the ancient Panhellenic Games.

Bowker adopted Nemea as one of his test-case, fundraising efforts, said Stephen Miller, the UC Berkeley emeritus professor of classics who led UC Berkeley's research at the Greek site for decades. Bowker's vision helped develop Nemea-related scholarly and popular publications, studies and dissertations by UC Berkeley students and faculty, and an archaeological park visited by 32,000 people in 2007 that features a museum, a temple of Zeus that is under reconstruction, and an ancient athletics stadium.

"Indeed, in 1996 that 'walking, talking unmade king-size bed,' as the undergraduates used to call him (Bowker), ran barefoot down the ancient stadium track at the first revival of the Nemean Games," said Miller. "It should surprise no one that the excavation house at Nemea bears, on its door, the little sign 'Bowker House.'"

Short Mommsen Colloquium

9-11 Oct. 2008 in Rostock



Tradition and innovation during the Flavian Empire: media strategies



The reign of the Flavian emperors is characterized by the desire to stabilize the organization of power after the tyranny of Nero and the struggle for succession. The new dynasty faces the task of proving its legitimacy by creating continuity with its Julio-Claudian predecessors, and especially with Augustus as the founder of the princi­pate. On the other hand, the Flavians aim to implement their own cultural and legisla­tive practices. This ambivalence between legitimisation through the past and inno­vative orientation towards the future can be traced in the strategies which the new regime develops in a wide range of media: in the arts, in literature, in its overall public self-presentation.



The conference will focus on this ambivalence between tradition and the claim for innovation. We especially welcome papers with an interdisciplinary approach, par­ticularly joint projects of colleagues from different Classical disciplines.

If you would like to contribute to the colloquium, please send us an abstract (ca. 500 words ) before 1st May 2008. The Mommsen-Gesellschaft can contribute to travel costs and your stay in Rostock. Guests and graduate students are welcome.



Date: 9-11 October 2008

Location: Rostock/Germany

Deadline for submission of proposals: 15 April 2008

Organizers:
Dr. Norbert Kramer, Rostock

Prof. Dr. Christiane Reitz, Rostock,

PD Dr. Lorenz Winkler-Horaček, Rostock and Berlin

Information and submission of papers via email:
christiane.reitz(at)uni-rostock.de

norbert.kramer(at)uni-rostock.de

A website will be shortly available via www.Mommsen-Gesellschaft.de

ante diem xi kalendas januarias

ludi palatini (day 2/5) - the theatrefest continues

permeate @ Dictionary.com

sophister @ Worthless Word for the Day

adjuvant @ Merriam-Webster

From the Union-Tribune:

An ancient tannery in the archaeological complex of Pompeii, a city destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the first century, will be restored, officials said Monday.

The tannery – discovered in the 19th century and excavated in the 1950s – includes water pipes, 15 round tubs and the tannery manager's house, archaeological officials said. A drying area is also believed to have been part of the complex.

Restoration of the tannery, which is believed to be among the world's most ancient, is expected to start this year, the statement said.

No other information was immediately available.

Pompeii was destroyed in A.D. 79 by a cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius that killed thousands of people and buried the city in 20 feet of volcanic ash. The ash preserved Pompeii for 1,600 years and provided precious information about what life was like in the ancient world.

6.00 p.m. |HISTU| Alexander the Great and the Devastating Catapult.
dna

8.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Atlantis - Mystery Of The Minoans
A lost civilization uncovered at Knossos, Crete in the early 1900s displayed many similarities to Plato's descriptions of Atlantis; but in 1939, it was proposed that the island of Thera might be the lost city.

10.00 p.m. |HINT| Engineering An Empire: The Byzantines
As much of the world descended into the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome, one civilization shone brilliantly: the Byzantine Empire. With ruthless might and supreme ingenuity, the Byzantines ruled over vast swaths of Europe and Asia for more than a thousand years. It was Byzantium that preserved the classical learning and science that would one day give rise to the Renaissance. The Byzantines constructed the ancient world's longest aqueduct, virtually invincible city walls, a massive stadium, and a colossal domed cathedral that defied the laws of nature. Watch with host Peter Weller as we learn how the engineering feats of this great empire would betray them as an ancient light was extinguished in the glare of modern warfare.

HISTU = History Channel (US)
DCIVC = Discovery Civilization (Canada)
HINT = History International

ante diem xii kalendas februarias

ludi palatini (day 1/4)

63 A.D. -- birth of Claudia (daughter of Nero and Poppaea)

1609 -- death of Joseph Justus Scaliger

devolve @ Merriam-Webster

From the Hindu:

The Italian Government has begun to show a welcome interest in the Roman Trail in South India and one of the consequences of this is likely to help in the development of an archaeological park in Arikamedu, 4 km south of Pondicherry and a part of t he Union Territory. As a prelude to this, a fascinating book titled Arikamedu – Its Place in the Ancient Rome-India Contacts, written by Madras archaeologist Dr. S. Suresh, has been brought out by the Embassy of Italy, New Delhi.

For some years now, Suresh has been leading small groups that have followed the Roman Trail in South India on tours organised by INTACH-Tamil Nadu. In his latest book, he spells out that trail in a little more detail, even if his focus is on Arikamedu. The trail stretches from ancient Musiris (generally considered to be Kodunganallur, north of Cochin, but that, Suresh emphasises, is just speculation; “those who claim to go to Musiris, actually go in search of Musiris!”, he feels) to Mylapore.

From Musiris the trail goes to Iyyal on the Trichur-Guruvayur Road where hoards of Roman coins were found in two caves, now called the St. Thomas Caves. Next comes the village of Vellalur, 15 km from Coimbatore, and Perur on the outskirts of the city. Roman coins and pottery have been found in both places and gold Roman jewellery - now in the Madras Museum – in the former. It’s then on to Kodumanal on the north bank of the Noyyal, a tributary of the Kaveri. An iron-processing industry and the manufacture of beads from semi-precious stones were major production activities here in Roman times, the iron ore coming from nearby Chenniamalai and the stones from several neighbouring villages. Excavations at Kodumanal have revealed iron swords and arrowheads, a terracotta head (my picture today), pottery, and Roman coins and gold and silver ornamentation.

Similar manufacture took place at Karur, the ancient capital of the Cheras on the banks of the Amaravathi, and similar finds have been made. The ancient Chola capital of Uraiyur, near Srirangam, is the next stop. Roman pottery and dyeing vats have been found here, the latter some confirmation of muslin that was much in demand in Rome being manufactured there. And so to the east coast, to the ancient port of Kaveripattinam (Poompuhar today, but Kaberis to the ancients from the West), once the chief port of the Cholas and a great entrepot. Roman pottery and coins have been discovered here and in a nearby place intriguingly called Vellaiyan-Iruppu (‘Abode of the white man’).

Heading north from Kaveripattinam you come to Arikamedu, once an important port and, in the 20th Century, site of the most extensive ‘digs’ in search of ancient Roman connections. The first searches were in the 1930s by the French, followed by a Madras Museum-led excavation at the request of the French in 1940. The French, as well as Wheeler, conducted ‘digs’ till 1950 before excavating Arikamedu was given up till an American-funded Indian scholar, Vimala Begley, worked at the site from 1989 to 1992. It’s been all quiet since then. The Archaeological Survey of India purchased the privately-owned site in 2003 and fenced it in 2006. Pottery, beads, coins and other evidence of Roman presence and trade have been unearthed here during every ‘dig’.

And so to the two ancient Pallava ports of Mamallapuram and Mylapore – where the Roman evidence in them long predates the Pallava. Once again, Roman coins and pottery have been the main finds. In fact, Roman coins have also been found in Saidapet and Mambalam!

The Romans followed the world’s oldest sea trade route from the 3rd Century B.C.E., till the 7th Century C.E., though their trading activities with India began to decline from the end of the 1st Century C.E. They came in search of textiles, gemstones, spices, ivory, sandalwood and the exotica of the East, not least its wealth of fauna. They brought with them coral, wine, silver and gold. The Yavanas, as they were known in South India, sailed from Pozzuoli near Capua in southern Italy to Alexandria, then down the Nile, across the desert to the Red Sea ports, particularly Berenike, and, thereafter, in Arab ships to India. It’s a wondrous story that deserves telling in detail by Suresh one day.

An excerpt from an item in the New York Times:

Volcanically, Antarctica is a fairly quiet place. But sometime around 325 B.C., the researchers said, a hidden and still active volcano erupted, puncturing several hundred yards of ice above it. Ash and shards from the volcano carried through the air and settled onto the surrounding landscape. That layer is now out of sight, hidden beneath the snows that fell over the subsequent 23 centuries.

Although out of sight, the layer showed up clearly in airborne radar surveys conducted over the region in 2004 and 2005 by American and British scientists. The reflected radio waves, over an elliptical area about 110 miles wide, were so strong that earlier radar surveys had mistakenly identified it as bedrock. Better radar techniques now can detect a second echo from the actual bedrock farther down.

The thickness of ice above the ash layer provided an estimate of the date of the eruption: 207 B.C., give or take 240 years. For a more precise date, Mr. Corr and Dr. Vaughan turned to previous observations from ice cores, which contained spikes in the concentration of acids, another byproduct of eruptions. Scientists knew that an eruption occurred around 325 B.C., plus or minus a few years, but did not know where the eruption occurred. “We’re fairly confident this is the same eruption,” Dr. Vaughan said.

Now, they know both time and place.

“It’s probably within Alexander the Great’s lifetime, but not more precise than that,” Dr. Vaughan said.

... I wonder if the effects of this were seen in the region of our purview ....

6.00 p.m. |HINT| Ancient City: Found and Lost
Explore the history of one of the most opulent cities of the ancient world--Zeugma, located in what is now known as Turkey. Built during the heady days of the Roman Empire, Zeugma thrived for hundreds of years, then vanished when Rome fell. Its magnificent ruins and mosaics were recently discovered and unearthed, only to be lost again when a newly-built hydroelectric dam flooded the entire valley.

9.00 p.m. |HISTC| ROME | How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic
Anointed People’s Tribune by Caesar, Mark Antony returns to Rome with Octavian’s liberators, Vorenus and Pullo. After being feted by a grateful Atia, Vorenus heads home to his family for the first time in eight years, while Pullo heads for the brothels. Shocked to see a husband she thought was dead, Vorenus’ wife, Niobe, presents him with a family he barely recognizes. After the Senate rebuffs Caesar’s “compromise” for a heroic return to Rome, Antony learns that Pompey has drafted an ultimatum stripping the general of his power. With tempers on both sides reaching a boiling point, unfinished business involving Pullo spawns a Forum melee that all but ensures an unhappy outcome in the Pompey-Caesar standoff – and sends Pullo and an injured Vorenus back into Caesar’s ranks.

HINT = History International
HISTC = History Television (Canada)

Assorted items that seem worthy of attention:

Thanks to William Caraher for mentioning our little blog in his lengthy look at archaeological blogging at Archaeology Magazine ...

Harper's Magazine on Caesar's Mistress (tip of the pileus to Mata Kimasatayo)

Classics profs (and Latin teachers) will be interested in the post at Thoughts on Antiquity (and related links) on the Decline of Classical Languages ...

Irene Hahn has conveniently gathered a number of recent posts over at the Toynbee Convector of interest (including the Disadvantages of a Classical Education) ...

You HAVE to watch Bella Dormiens, a Latin Class project up at eClassics which is actually in Latin and good too!

I've put up issue 10.39 of our Explorator Newsletter as well as the latest weekly version of our Ancient World on Television listings ...

Ages ago on the Classics list -- inspired by McMaster University's motto being in Greek -- I had asked the Classics list about other mottoes in ancient Greek; this week, Diana Wright (TotP) sent a link to a list/discussion of quite a few of them ...

The Guardian has some nice retellings of some Greek myths ... download them now while you can!

Something to look forward to at the ACL in June ...

I'm still figuring out how best to deal with ITunesU podcasts here ... for now it should suffice to mention that my drive-to-and-from-work listening this week will be:

Garret Fagan, Roman Arenas and Crowd Dynamics

... and I'm hoping to get to some episodes of:

Dr Frank A. James III, History of Christianity

... and possibly:

Patrick Hunt, How Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?

From MSNBC:

Greece's Olympic Committee said Thursday that work to replant fire-ravaged woods at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games was far behind schedule, and urged "drastic improvement" before the flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics.

The conservative government has pledged to replant the area around the site, following the descriptions of ancient writers, in time for the March 24 ceremony.

But the Hellenic Olympic Committee, or HOC, said work was badly delayed.

"If the current situation does not improve drastically in the immediate future, our country will be brought into international disrepute and one of the Olympic movement's top events will be dramatically discredited," an HOC statement said.

"We express our deepest concern at the progress of the work at the site, given the very tight time schedule."

Officials at the Culture Ministry, which is responsible for replanting at the World Heritage site, were not immediately available for comment.

Ancient Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, a lush beauty spot where the ancient Games were first held in 776 B.C, suffered extensive damage from the summer wildfires — the worst on record — that killed 66 people in southern Greece. Firefighters kept the flames at bay just short of the 2,500-year-old ruined temples and stadium, but the surrounding forests were obliterated.

Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said last year that the flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics would be conducted "in the best way possible," while 3,200 bushes and trees would be planted on the Hill of Kronos that overlooks the site.

The carefully orchestrated ritual has been held at Ancient Olympia before every Olympics since the 1936 Berlin Games.

Kneeling in front of the ruined Temple of Hera, an actress in the white gown and sandals of an ancient high priestess lights the Olympic flame using a concave mirror to focus the sun's heat on a silver torch.

The flame is transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony.

Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history — an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that will cross five continents.

Another one from PR-Inside:

Wild chariot races, scenes of column-busting combat, and even a doping scandal at the Olympic Games were all watched in Athens late Thursday.
«Asterix at the Olympics» premiered in the Greek capital _ the third installment of France's popular movie series based on the comic books by Rene Goscinny and Albert
Uderzo.
The movie is due for general release Jan. 30, and director Frederic Forestier on Thursday said Uderzo had kept a close eye on the filmmaking.
«While it was being made, he read through the script and joined for as many different parts of the movie as he could,» Forestier said in Athens.
«He is really very happy with the film ... He thinks this adaptation (was) faithful to the spirit of the comic book _ both its images and characters.
Asterix, his obese chum Obelix, their dog Dogmatix and the friendly druid Getafix have starred in more than 30 comic book adventures over five decades as the plucky Gaul fights to keep his corner of France free from the ancient Romans.
In the movie, the Gallic duo takes on the Romans in the Olympic arena to help their love-sick friend Alafolix win the heart of the beautiful Greek Princess Irina, played by model Vanessa Hessler.
There are also brief appearances from basketball star Tony Parker, soccer great Zinedine Zidane and Formula One's Michael Schumacher.
Off the field, the two sides have to contend with corrupt judges and doping allegations surrounding the Gauls' famous magic potion.
Forestier said he hoped the comic's international appeal could draw non-French audience to his 158-minute comedy.
«In the United States, they have a huge range of movies, from blockbusters to small independent productions. But in Europe, it's limited ... we're very enclosed in our own (countries) and this limits us to certain styles of cinema,» he said.
«But because the Asterix comics are so well known, this allows us to make European films which are also in this (more general, international) category.
French actor Gerard Depardieu, who returns as Obelix, said he enjoyed his latest run at comedy.

«I've done comedy before, and this a movie taken from a comic book, so the actions are all exaggerated,» he said.
«I love the character of Obelix. He's a comedian without meaning to be. He doesn't necessarily want to make people laugh. He's fat, he's strong, he's a bit like me.

The stuff at the official website looks interesting (Click on 'Teaser') ...

From PR-Inside:

Italy's campaign to recover allegedly looted treasures from museums and collectors worldwide is helping reduce the illegal international traffic of archaeological artifacts stolen from the country, officials said Thursday.
Art thefts in 2007 were down by more than 10 percent compared to 2006, while illegal excavations decreased by four percent, said Gen.
Giovanni Nistri, who heads the art squad of the Carabinieri paramilitary police.
«The figures show how, at the moment, international trafficking ... is surely declining,» Nistri said at a presentation of his unit's yearly report. «In 2007, the trafficking of archaeological items was more domestic and involved objects of less important quality.
Italy is aggressively combatting the pillage of its archaeological and artistic treasures. Its efforts include seeking the return of hundreds of antiquities it claims were dug up clandestinely, smuggled out of the country and sold to top museums worldwide.
So far, Italy has secured the return of dozens of Roman, Greek and Etruscan artifacts from museums including California's J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Nistri said that illegally excavated artifacts were generally channeled through Switzerland _ long considered a hub of illegal trafficking _ before reaching other destinations including the United States.
That conduit has been drying up since Italy and Switzerland signed a deal in 2006 under which customs officials must ensure that importers of antiquities have proof of the artifact's origin and of its lawful export from the neighboring country.

No major art theft was reported this year in Italy and thefts from museums also decreased, Nistri said.
«The fact that items are recovered is discouraging (the thefts),» Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli told reporters at the presentation.
The art squad report said that over 95,000 paintings, ancient books and other items were recovered this year _ an increase of 457 percent compared to last year_ while over 28,000 archaeological artifacts were recovered, 16 percent more than 2006.
Italy's art squad, founded in 1969, monitors some 6,000 archaeological sites. A 1939 law makes all antiquities found in the country state property.

Not sure I follow the logic in this one ... how do they know that legal excavations have declined by four per cent? Doesn't it really mean they (the art squad) found out about four percent fewer illegal excavations? And even with that, what does that mean? One fewer than last year?

From the NY Times:

This week Greece’s culture minister, Michalis Liapis, pruned the powers of the country’s new archaeology chief, Theodoros Dravillas, after the dismissal and suicide attempt of the politician who preceded him in that post.

Christos Zachopoulos, the former secretary general of the Greek Culture Ministry and chairman of the Central Archaeological Council, jumped off the balcony of his fourth-floor home here last month after allegations that he was being blackmailed by his former office assistant, with whom he had had an affair. Mr. Zachopoulos, 54, survived the fall. But what began as a sex scandal has evolved into a political one that is being closely watched across the country. Mr. Zachopoulos was appointed to his post in 2004 by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, a friend.

Mr. Zachopoulos’s former assistant has been detained while awaiting trial on charges of attempted blackmail, and Athens investigators have opened an inquiry into the former archaeology chief’s handling of ministry finances.

An Athens prosecutor is also examining at least 10 of an estimated 200 cases in which Mr. Zachopoulos, in his capacity as the head of the Central Archaeological Council, decreed that places could be removed from the list of protected archaeological sites.

The controversy seems to have eroded the moral authority of the Greek Culture Ministry, which has waged a high-profile campaign to reclaim ancient artifacts that it says were clandestinely looted from its soil and sold to museums abroad. Among the artifacts ceded recently are a priceless ancient gold wreath and a marble statue from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Among other decisions, investigators are examining a $90,000 grant sanctioned by Mr. Zachopoulos last month for a reforestation project at a group of archaeological sites in Salonika in northern Greece.

The Athens daily Eleftherotypia reported that the decision countered recommendations by a team of culture ministry experts who said the project could damage Byzantine monuments.

The scandal has set off a series of changes. For example, Mr. Liapis, the culture minister, said this week that Mr. Zachopoulos’s successor as the head of the archaeological council would not be allowed to vote twice to break a tie or to push through any other decision.

“We have to change some things so that there is greater transparency, so that public trust can be restored to this very important institution,” Mr. Liapis said at a news conference on Tuesday. “I’ve given orders to the new secretary general to strive for the biggest possible majority decisions in cases that come before the council.”

In July Mr. Zachopoulos used his second vote to allow two Art Deco buildings here — one of which was designed by a friend of Picasso’s and is viewed as an architectural landmark in Athens — to be removed from the protected list because it blocked the view from the restaurant of the new $178 million New Acropolis Museum. The issue had split the council 12-12.

But Mr. Liapis said the July vote was only “one of two cases in which Mr. Zachopoulos used his right to a second vote,” and that neither decision involved financial interests. Even so, opposition lawmakers now want to review several contracts approved by Mr. Zachopoulos.

Opposition lawmakers have also called upon Prime Minister Karamanlis to appear before a parliamentary committee. Their request has been dismissed by the government.

PRIESTS AND STATE IN THE ROMAN WORLD

LAMPETER, 28-30 AUGUST 2008

The Department of Classics at the University of Wales, Lampeter is pleased
to announce that an international conference on ‘Priests and State in the
Roman World’ will take place at Lampeter between 28 and 30 August 2008.

This is a list of the confirmed papers:
J. Rüpke (Erfurt), Different colleges – never mind?
J. North (London), Lex Domitia revisited
T. J. Cornell (Manchester), TBA
A. Raggi (Pisa), Religion and Provincial Laws
S. Mitchell (Exeter), What did imperial high priests actually do?
M. Humpries (Swansea), Towards a new pontifex maximus? Roman Church and
Roman State in Late Antiquity
A. Dalla Rosa (Pisa-Cologne), Auspicia of the emperor and the proconsuls
J. Rich (Nottingham), Roman Priests and Roman War
F. Santangelo (Lampeter), Pontiffs and pax deorum
A. Clark (Oxford), Magistri and ministri in Roman Italy
E. Isayev (Exeter), Just the right amount of priestly foreigners: Roman
citizenship for the Greek priestess of Ceres
J. Richardson (Lampeter), The Vestal Virgins and the Annales Maximi
F. Glinister (London), The Salian Virgins
J. Reynolds (Cambridge), Priests in Cyrenaica
N. Belayche (Paris), Priests at Pisidian Antioch
R. Häussler (Osnabruck), State and Religion in Gallia Narbonensis
B. Rossignol (Paris), Municipal and provincial priests from the Danubian
provinces (Pannonia, Dacia, Moesia superior)
B. Goffaux (Lille), Priests in Roman Spain
L. Capponi (Newcastle), Priests, Books and State in Hellenistic and Roman
Egypt
A. Powell (UWICAH), Killing a priest of Apollo: Aeneid 10, 537-42

The conference will be dedicated to the memory of our colleague Keith
Hopwood.
There will be no registration fee, and everybody is welcome to attend.

For any query or expression of interest, you are welcome to get in touch
with the conference organisers, Dr James Richardson
(j.richardson AT lamp.ac.uk) and Dr Federico Santangelo
(f.santangelo AT lamp.ac.uk).

From BMCR:

Zahra Newby, Ruth Leader-Newby, Art and Inscriptions in the Ancient World.

Gwenaelle Aubry, Dieu sans la puissance. Dunamis et energeia chez Aristote et chez Plotin.

Renato Raffaelli, Alba Tontini (edd.), Lecturae Plautinae Sarsinates X: "Menaechmi".

Kieran McGroarty, Plotinus on Eudaimonia: A Commentary on Ennead I.4.

William Fitzgerald, Martial: The World of the Epigram.

Mark W. Chavalas (ed.), Current Issues in the History of the Ancient Near East: Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 8.

Adrian Kelly, A Referential Commentary and Lexicon to Homer, Iliad VIII.

Martin Wallraff (ed.), Julius Africanus und die christliche Weltchronistik. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 157.

Jim Powell (trans.), The Poetry of Sappho.

Bruce Louden, The Iliad: Structure, Myth, and Meaning.

6.00 p.m. |HINT|Rome: Engineering an Empire
For more than 500 years, Rome was the most powerful and advanced civilization the world had ever known, ruled by visionaries and tyrants whose accomplishments ranged from awe-inspiring to deplorable. One characteristic linked them all--ambition--and the thirst for power that all Roman emperors shared fueled an unprecedented mastery of engineering and labor. This documentary special chronicles the spectacular and sordid history of the Roman Empire from the rise of Julius Caesar in 55 BC to its eventual fall around 537 AD, detailing the remarkable engineering feats that set Rome apart from the rest of the ancient world. Featuring extensive state-of-the-art CGI animation, and exclusive never-before-seen footage shot on a diving expedition in the water channels underneath the Colosseum.

7.00 p.m. |HISTC| ROME | the Stolen Eagles
52 B.C. Eager to return to Rome after eight long years of war, Gaius Julius Caesar ends his campaign with a resounding victory in Gaul – and news of a shattering personal loss at home. When his army’s gold standard is stolen, Caesar’s cousin and commander Mark Antony enlists two soldiers, Centurion Lucius Vorenus and Legionnaire Titus Pullo, to track it down. Despite their differences, the two make a formidable duo, and elevate themselves by retrieving more than just the missing standard. In Rome, Caesar’s old friend Pompey Magnus is counseled by Cato, Cicero, Scipio and other old-guard members of the Senate, who worry that Caesar’s popularity among the masses will rattle the patrician status quo, along with their wealth and power. Pompey too has experienced a personal loss, which Caesar’s niece, Atia, looks to assuage through an offering of her daughter, Octavia. Careful to play both sides of an escalating power struggle, Atia sends Caesar a grand token of her esteem, hand-delivered after a perilous journey by her precocious 11-year-old son, Octavian.

HINT = History International

HISTC = History Television (Canada)

... and he's a humanities guy ...



PhD Comics

Seminars on Memory and Mourning; Death in Ancient Rome



The second seminar will be held in the Arts Faculty Crowther Building Room 062, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes on Wednesday, February 13 2008.

Programme

Coffee from 10.30am



11.00 Carolyn Price (OU) ‘Robbed of life? Seneca on the injustice of premature death’



11.45 Virginia Campbell-Lewis (Reading) 'As the Romans do: a comparative study of the tomb of Veia Barchilla and the tomb of Cecilia Metella';



LUNCH 12.30 – 1.15 (not provided, but available in the University Refectory)



1.15 Heather Manning (Manchester) 'Epitaphs and egos: funerary monuments and social history in Republican Rome'.



2.00 Clemence Schultze (Durham) ‘Putting death on the record: dying and commemoration in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’



2.45 Eleanor Brook (Cambridge) 'Vita mortuorum: death and commemoration in Cicero's speeches';



3.30 Tea Departure



There is no fee, but please email Bronwen Sharp, Departmental Coordinator, Department of Classical Studies (B.M.Sharp AT open.ac.uk) by February 1 2008 if you intend to come. Lunch can be bought at the OU Refectory. Details of how to reach the OU at Walton Hall can be found at: http://www3.open.ac.uk/contact/locations.aspx

For further enquiries please contact either of us:

Valerie Hope (V.M.Hope) and Janet Huskinson (J.A.R.Huskinson AT open.ac.uk)

ANCIENT LIBRARIES CONFERENCE
SCHOOL OF CLASSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
9-11 SEPTEMBER 2008

Libraries operate as the core foundation of research and study in the modern
Western world. Historically, they have enabled the preservation and
transmission of knowledge from antiq