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Author Archives: Peter Kruschwitz
Drama queens: Ummidia and Messalina acting it out
Yesterday I had the immense pleasure to present – again – at the JACT GCSE Latin and Greek Conference at Westminster School London. My talk covered two set texts for the GCSE Latin – Pliny’s letter 7.24 (on Ummidia Quadratilla) … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Prose
Tagged Education, Feminism, Food for thought, GCSE Latin, Language and Thought, Messalina, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Ummidia Quadratilla, Women
1 Comment
Hard shell, soft core
The late antique poet Claudian wrote a series of seven short epigrams on a fluid inclusion (or ‘enhydro’); these poems form part of a collection of Carmina minora (‘Shorter poems’), where they feature under the title De crystallo cui aqua … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Claudian, Crystals, Curiosity, Enhydro, Fluid inclusions, Food for thought, Gemstones, Humanity, Latin poetry, Marvels, Nature, Poetry, Political Discourse, Preciousness, Resist, Resist beginnings, Trump, Truth
3 Comments
Principiis obsta: resist beginnings!
Ovid, in his elegiac poem Remedia Amoris (‘Remedies for Love’), writes (Ov. rem. 89–94, transl. J. H. Mozley): Quale sit id, quod amas, celeri circumspice mente, et tua laesuro subtrahe colla iugo. Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur, cum mala per … Continue reading
Facts vs. alternative facts (formerly known as ‘bull$#!^’): an ancient poem
Phaedrus, Rome’s fabulist of the first century A. D., wrote a remarkable piece called Poeta de credere et non credere, ‘The poet’s judgement with respect to believing and not believing’ (Phaedr. 3.10). This is the rather delightful 1761 translation of … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Alternative Facts, Big questions, Bullshit, Fabulae, Facts, Falsehoods, Kellyanne Conway, Lies, Phaedrus, Poetry, Post-Truth, Sean Spicer, Trump, Truth
2 Comments
When Harmony Disintegrates
You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family, the saying goes. And it made me wonder: considering that Roman literature is full of stories about family relations, how much do we really know about family life in … Continue reading
Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Poetry
Tagged Brothers, Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Death, Family, Fate, Fates, Humanity, Moirai, Mourning, Parcae, Poetry, Siblings, Sisterhood, Sisters
6 Comments
Creative Processes
In 2015, my colleague Dr Rachel Mairs and I organised an international workshop that we called ‘Materialising Poetry‘. I have very fond memories of the day, and the theme that we got to discuss with our colleagues and students has … Continue reading
Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Poetry
Tagged Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Creative writing, Creativity, How to write poetry, Latin poetry, Nero, Ovid, Peter Robinson, Poetry, Pompeii, Tacitus, Vergil, Writing
Comments Off on Creative Processes
Roman poetry is when…
My favourite definition of poetry goes like this: Poetry is when every line begins with a capital letter and does not reach the right margin of the page. I like this definition so much, because, in its focus on two … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Bad poetry, Big questions, Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Cicero, Latin poetry, Latin verse inscriptions, Poetics, Sulla
5 Comments
New Year’s Death
For at least thirty-nine people their desire to celebrate the new year ended fatally last night in Istanbul when a hitherto unidentified perpetrator marched into a nightclub and gunned down his victims. Another 69 or so have been injured. In … Continue reading
Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry
Tagged Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Coping, Death, Happy New Year, Hope and Fear, Istanbul, Latin poetry, Terrorism, Violence
Comments Off on New Year’s Death
End-of-Year Magic
India, according to the Natural History of the Elder Pliny, was home to some of the world’s most amazing animals (Plin. nat. 8.76, transl. H. Rackham): He says that in India there are also oxen with solid hoofs and one … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Aelian, Christmas, Early Christianity, Fabulae, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Magic, Magical creatures, Physiologus, Pliny the Elder, Unicorns
1 Comment
An innocent lamb used facts as a weapon against post-truth politics. You won’t believe what happened next…
In my previous post, I explored the dynamics and rhetoric behind what has been called ‘post-truth politics’. The concept still is very much on my mind. On the one hand, I am not deluded enough to believe that concepts such … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Big questions, Fabulae, Food for thought, Government, Phaedrus, Post-Truth, Truth
10 Comments
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