Author Archives: Peter Kruschwitz

About Peter Kruschwitz

Berliner. Classicist. Scatterbrain.

Vergil and the Minions (and a Blatantly False Translation)

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

UNCOVERED: the earliest attestation of  ‘Minions’ as followers of the mighty seeking to follow a boss and to lay waste to the establishment in Vergil‘s Aeneid (10.182–4, translation from here [slightly altered]; summary overview of the context available here). ter … Continue reading →

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Two Latin Poems (and an English one) from Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

If someone were to ask of me some of my most favourite places in the world, Scotland’s capital Edinburgh would most definitely feature on that list. Last weekend, enjoying another delightful day in Edinburgh, I ventured to explore one of … Continue reading →

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Undying Voices: The Poetry of Roman Britain

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Britain has produced some of the world’s most highly renowned, influential, and beautiful poetry – Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Shakespeare,  John Milton, Robert Burns, the Brontë sisters, Lewis Carroll, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, to name but a select few! … Continue reading →

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Sousse: Whence the Offence, Whence the Hurt…?

Posted on June 27, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Sousse, ancient Hadrumetum, gave light to a famous mosaic, now kept in the Musée national du Bardo, Tunis: The mosaic displays Rome’s most famous poet Vergil (centre), surrounded by two Muses, Clio (left) and Melpomene (right). In his lap, held … Continue reading →

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More Than Meets the Eye: Fragrance, Sensuousness, and Inscribed Latin Poetry

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

When we talk about ‘reading’ and ‘Latin poetry’ in academic contexts, we often tend to reduce complex intellectual and sensuous processes to a fairly linear model by which a text, either by acoustic or by optic means, somehow enters the … Continue reading →

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Every Dog Has His Day

Posted on June 20, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

I am a hypocrite. I enjoy eating meat, even though I know about the way it is ‘produced’ (a sterile, technical term, to disguise the suffering and killing of animals, which have been bred under horrendous conditions, drugged, and tortured … Continue reading →

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Departure, Abandonment, and Grief: Latin Poems about Death in Childbirth

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the poem for a Roman lap-dog named Margarita (‘Pearl’), whose splendid inscription I managed to visit in the British museum. The text of the inscription – moving, personal, and affectionate – has … Continue reading →

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Poverty and the Poetics of Underclass Morality

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Is there a direct (inversely proportional) relation between (desired) material wealth and morality? The author of the first pseudo-Sallustian letter to Caesar appears to think so ([Sall.] epist. 1.7.3-9; transl. J. C. Rolfe): But by far the greatest blessing which … Continue reading →

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Latin Poetry and the Limits of Roman Medicine

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

There is a notorious passage in Plutarch‘s Life of Cato the Elder (23.3-4), in which the Greek philosopher denounces the infamous censor‘s view on Greek medicine: It was not only Greek philosophers that he hated, but he was also suspicious … Continue reading →

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Oh the Humanity!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Several months ago, I received a letter from the Vatican which had been sent by His Eminence Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Secretary of State. The letter included my appointment to the position of Academicus Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy for Latin … Continue reading →

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