Author Archives: Peter Kruschwitz

About Peter Kruschwitz

Berliner. Classicist. Scatterbrain.

Creative disruption and relentless retribution

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Strikes are annoying to everyone: employers, customers, and – last, but certainly not least – their employees. Annoyance quickly leads to anger, and anger quickly leads to advocacy for acts of retribution for a perceived injustice – retribution that in … Continue reading →

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Selling out core values

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

The Historia Augusta, probably dating to the fourth century A. D., is a most peculiar assemblage of imperial biographies, much of which may be pure fiction. In the context of the Life of the Deified Aurelian, an emperor of the … Continue reading →

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Worth a fart(h)ing?

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

There are many things one may say about Petronius‘ famous Neronian-era novel Satyricon; that it shows much sympathy for Rome’s lower and lowest social classes, however, or for those who managed to escape their social predicament and reached a certain … Continue reading →

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Strike where the sun don’t shine…

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

The sun-god Helios could not believe it when his daughter Lampetië told him what had just happened: a bunch of savages had dared to kill and devour his sacred cattle that he pastured on the island of Thrinacia! Of course, … Continue reading →

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The solidarity of the precariously employed

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

A papyrus from the Hermopolite nome in Egypt, dated to A. D. 117, written by a lady called Eudaimonis to her daughter Aline addresses a wide range of family matters, including some current worries over the family business (P. Brem. … Continue reading →

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Strike, Legal Action, and Delusion

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Many stories about walk-outs and strikes in the Roman Empire originate from its Eastern provinces. A particularly noteworthy event in this context is the strike of the bakers’ guild in Ephesus in the second half of the second century A. … Continue reading →

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United we stand, divided we fall

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

A Latin inscription from Beirut, dating to the third century A. D., records a conflict between shipowners from Arelate (Arles) in Gaul and the Roman government: [- – – I]ulianus naviculariis / [mar]inis Arelatensibus quinque / [co]rporum salutem / [qu]id … Continue reading →

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On strike!

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Tibicines, professional flute-players, held an awkward position within the society of Republican Rome. On the one hand, they were admired for their skills and regarded as quintessential for maintaining the sacred order of the state. Unsurprisingly, due to their quintessential … Continue reading →

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True Love

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

exemplo iunctae tibi sint in amore columbae, masculus et totum femina coniugium. errat, qui finem vesani quaerit amoris: verus amor nullum novit habere modum. ‘Let doves yoked in love be your model, male and female, a perfect union. He errs … Continue reading →

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Escape Routes

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

Probably in A. D. 474, Gaius Sollius Modestus Sidonius Apollinaris, more commonly known just as Sidonius Apollinaris, a Gallo-Roman aristocrat, Bishop of Clermont (eventually canonised), as well as an acclaimed poet, wrote a letter to one Magnus Felix, a former … Continue reading →

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