Category Archives: Epigraphy

Remember Lucius M-whatsisface?

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

I am a lucky person. The British Academy recently awarded me a Mid-Career Fellowship for 2014-5, allowing me to work on a project on my long-standing research interest, Latin inscriptions in verse or, as they are more commonly called among … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , | 6 Comments

From Pompeii, With Love

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Exeter is a place that inspires me to talk about nonsense emerging from Pompeii. Seven or so years ago, I applied for a lectureship at the University of Exeter. For my presentation, I chose to talk about my initial observations … Continue reading →

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Love Bites

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

One of the more bizarre stories of the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the Luis Suárez biting incident: Uruguay’s striker, currently playing for Liverpool, bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini. Suárez has a remarkable history of this peculiar behaviour: Meanwhile, the incident … Continue reading →

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Children, Love, and Memory

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Reading’s magnificent Saint Laurence church houses many a Latin inscription, some of which date back as far as the late medieval period. Among these treasures, there is a remarkable funerary monument, dedicated to one Martha Hamley: The monument displays a … Continue reading →

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The Divine Riches of the Latin Language

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

My son’s interest in the Latin language, fuelled by his engaging Latin teacher, remains unbroken. Recently, for example, he wished to discuss the authenticity of some volumes of John Maddox Roberts‘s beautifully entertaining SPQR series with me (to a depth … Continue reading →

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Epigraphy CIS – Cause of Death: (illegible scrawl)

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Latin inscriptions are fascinating. Like personal letters of the same time, they allow unique glimpses into the ancient world and the fate of individuals – if, in the case of tombstones, usually through the prism of the perception of those … Continue reading →

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Two Easter Tales

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Easter tends to be a most cheerful holiday for Christians – and Not-Quite-So-Christians – all over the world, an occasion on which public life is suspended: celebrated in early spring, when nature finally resumes its life and the sun starts … Continue reading →

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Why Learn a Foreign Language?

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

The following considerations were part of a paper presented at a British Academy Early Careers Regional Event: ‘Linguistic Diversity and Cultural Identities in Europe: Oral Voices and Literary Languages (Eurotales: an Exhibiting and Museographical Experiment)’ on 11 April 2014 in … Continue reading →

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Misappropriation and Misapprehension: Vergil on 9/11

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

Memorials are difficult: what do we wish to remember, and how, and why? This becomes all the more apparent, the more prominent and the more emotive a monument is in its context. Recently, there has been some (renewed) debate over … Continue reading →

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Waxing Poetic: Bees and Death (and Bee Death)

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Peter Kruschwitz

The issue, and in fact the very idea, of bee death and colony collapses – a constant feature of the news for a number of years now – is deeply worrying and unsettling: how will we all survive, if the … Continue reading →

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