Category Archives: Poetry

Late Homework: Seamus Heaney’s Aeneid, Book VI

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

The younger Seneca, in his Consolatio ad Polybium, praises Polybius for his translations of the classics: a Latin translation of Homer and a Greek translation of Vergil. Seneca writes (11.5-6): Agedum illa, quae multo ingenii tui labore celebrata sunt, in … Continue reading →

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Leap Day Harmony

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Vergil‘s eighth Eclogue is a remarkable text. It presents a ‘song battle’ between Damon and Alphesiboeus, two pastoral poets, whose poetry is described in supernatural terms (Verg. ecl. 8.1-5, transl. H. R. Fairclough): Pastorum musam Damonis et Alphesiboei, immemor herbarum … Continue reading →

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Sweet Talk for Latin Lovers

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, any respectable Latin lover will, of course, be keen to brush up on their relevant sweet talking skills. Here are are some lines you may wish to rehearse for your Latin wooing and … Continue reading →

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A Disarming Hug

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

January 21st. Apparently it is National Hugging Day: a day that ’embraces hugging’ (or so the organisers say). Whatever next? There are a great many hugs and passionate embraces in Latin literature. Among my most favourite Roman hugs, however, I … Continue reading →

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A Poem Worthy of a Champion

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

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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Casting the Die, Sounding the Charge

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

It was on January 10th, 49 B. C., allegedly, that Gaius Julius Caesar decided to cross the Rubicon – literally – and thus both to start a bloody civil war and to create a metaphor, for millennia to come, that describes … Continue reading →

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First Things First

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

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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A Medieval Cycle of Poems for Santa Claus

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

In my search for something unusual and exciting for my readership to enjoy in the second half of December, I came across a most remarkable cycle of poems celebrating St. Nicholas of Myra, now more commonly known and worshipped in … Continue reading →

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Let us remember that this has happened

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

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 Peter Kruschwitz

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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