Author Archives: Peter Kruschwitz

About Peter Kruschwitz

Berliner. Classicist. Scatterbrain.

The Power of Song and Music at Pompeii

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Clearly some houses at Pompeii are more prone to disaster than others. Not only was dwelling III 5.1, the shop and house of Pascius Hermes, destroyed and covered by volcanic matter just like everything else at Pompeii: it was damaged … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Grand Theft Pompeii

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Just off Pompeii’s principal street, the so-called Via dell’Abbondanza (‘Street of Abundance’), painted onto a pilaster between two doorways, the following (somewhat fragmentary) inscription was discovered (CIL IV 64): Vrna aenia pereit de taberna. Sei quis rettulerit dabuntur HS LXV, … Continue reading →

Posted in Epigraphy, Poetry, Prose, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

When it rains, it pours (Or: Don’t just do something, stand there!)

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his work Agricola in the context a passage that comments on the British isles’ multus umor terrarum caelique (‘the excessive moisture of the soil and of the atmosphere’) famously writes (Tac. Agr. 12): Caelum crebris … Continue reading →

Posted in Epigraphy, Prose | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Lecture: ‘Aufidius was here. (Really? And where exactly?)’

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Today I had the great pleasure to open the ‘Pompeii: The Present and Future of Vesuvian Research‘ seminar series at the University of Leeds, organised by Dr Virginia Campbell and Dr Rick Jones. A video of my lecture is now … Continue reading →

Posted in Epigraphy, Poetry, Prose | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Lecture: ‘Aufidius was here. (Really? And where exactly?)’

An Olympic Shitstorm

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Poking fun at Russia and its organisation of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi has become a new pastime. Among the more recent entertaining news feature stories of loos that lack dividing walls between individual toilets – a gaffe that … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on An Olympic Shitstorm

Gay Weather

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Weather prediction appears to be a difficult and complex task that, in order to arrive at reliable results, should not be left to a single amateur. Or so I thought… (After all, there had to be a good reason as … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hot Air and Sage Advice, or: Human, All Too Human (A Blog Post for Free Thinkers)

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

There has been a remarkable wave of outputs recently, traditional and web-based, that conceptualised the wish to find ancient Roman fore-runners of the walls of social media, counterparts for toilet graffiti and related witticisms, or at least some proto-memes by … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Education, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Plautus on Immigration and Domestic Policy

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

The Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 BC) wrote a play called Mostellaria (‘The Spectre’ or ‘The Haunted House’). In the second scene of the play, Philolaches, a young man who enjoys life rather more than he should while his … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Plautus on Immigration and Domestic Policy

Digesting Food for Thought

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Peter Kruschwitz

Travel broadens the mind, they say. This may not always be the case, but it most definitely was my experience when I was fortunate enough to attend the conference ‘Manuscripts and Epigraphy’ in mid-November, impeccably organised by the Centre of … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Out of the woods?

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Peter Kruschwitz

This is a slightly shortened version of a paper given as introductory talk on occasion of a celebration of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 700th birthday, organised by Dr Paola Nasti (Department of Modern Languages and European Studies). Boccaccio’s Bucolicum carmen 5: ‘Silva … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments