Category Archives: Epigraphy

No graffiti please!

Posted on April 5, 2017 by

Yesterday news broke about houses that were defaced with graffiti (or, strictly speaking, dipinti – after all, the text was painted onto, not scratched into, the surface) in Cambridge – in Latin: Locus in domos … loci populum is a … Continue reading →

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New Year’s Death

Posted on January 1, 2017 by

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 →

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Called to the Grave

Posted on June 2, 2016 by

It has been almost a year since I last visited Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirkyard. Back to  Edinburgh this week as external examiner, I found a little spare time to take a stroll to this marvellous space, and I came back with … Continue reading →

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Sneaking a Peek at Reading Abbey

Posted on May 15, 2016 by

Recently, I have not found as much time to write pieces for this blog as I used to. Summer term – exam period  at Reading – is upon us, and in addition to that, I have been very busy working … Continue reading →

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Harrowing Statues: Pliny, Hannibal, and Cecil Rhodes

Posted on January 31, 2016 by

History is like a bad dream from which one cannot wake. Though undoubtedly related to what once must have been real, history merely exists in our collective and individual imaginations and re-imaginations. It is shaped by our fantasy and wishful … Continue reading →

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A Poem Worthy of a Champion

Posted on January 17, 2016 by

This was an excellent weekend, as far as my Latin epigraphy geekiness goes. On Friday and Saturday, I had the immense pleasure of preparing and leading a Study Day on Latin inscriptions for the Study Centre of St. Albans Cathedral … Continue reading →

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First Things First

Posted on December 31, 2015 by

Gaius Caelius Donatus of Oppidum Novum in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis (now Ain Defla, Algeria) was really looking forward to New Year’s Day. An auspicious day, the Romans marked New Year’s Day with religious ceremonies and sacrifice (as T. … Continue reading →

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Let us remember that this has happened

Posted on December 12, 2015 by

After the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A. D., most of the Iberian peninsula eventually became part of the Visigothic Kingdom. A successor state to the (Western) Roman Empire, the Visigoths had gained control over Rome’s … Continue reading →

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: Frosty Notes from Roman Britain

Posted on November 24, 2015 by

Last week I gave a research seminar paper at Reading about Britain’s most ancient poetry, the evidence for which I published on this blog a few months back in a freely available and downloadable e-publication called Undying Voices. One of the … Continue reading →

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War, Combat Trauma, and Poetry: Evidence for PTSD in the Latin Verse Inscriptions?

Posted on November 13, 2015 by

In my previous blog post, I introduced a text that provides an (albeit anecdotal) unusual view on the Roman army, its drill, its effectiveness, and the dehumanising, romanticising narratives that prevail around it. The further one delves into the world … Continue reading →

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