Category Archives: Prose

Sneering at Experts

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Defamatory remarks and jokes about entire professions, regardless of the individuals pursing them or their actual performance, are a stock element of western comedic culture. Among the most ridiculed group of professionals, since ancient times, are teachers, professors, and other … Continue reading →

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False Etymologies

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

With a little (and really only just a little) too much time on my hands, I recently thought: why not enter terms that are on my mind a lot as search strings into the Packhum Latin database and see what … Continue reading →

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A Chilling Letter from Ancient Rome

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

It has been a couple of years since I last posted a chilling Halloween story from the ancient world, and it has also been quite some time now since I last blogged: I blame a spooky-scary workload! At any rate, … Continue reading →

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‘Amatrice is no more,’ or: August 24th, again

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Correctly or not, August 24th is the date which is commonly taken as the day on which, in A. D. 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii as well as many adjacent settlements. Yesterday – on August … Continue reading →

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In memoriam Jo Cox MP

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Today, the increasingly shrill rhetoric around Britain’s future position within or outside the European Union (‘Bremain’ vs. ‘Brexit’) appears to have claimed the life of Labour MP Jo Cox. We tend to think of speech as ‘mere words’. But speech … Continue reading →

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Cicero’s Procrastinations

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Today, Marcus Tullius Cicero is widely known as one of ancient Rome’s foremost lawyers, orators, philosophers, and statesmen. Born in 106 B. C., Cicero managed to establish himself in a difficult case in 80 B. C., when he – successfully … Continue reading →

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Groans of the Britons

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

In a couple of months’ time, the United Kingdom will hold a referendum over a contentious question: ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?‘ As a foreigner currently residing in Britain, … Continue reading →

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Beware the Ides of March

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Helvius Cinna, now virtually unknown to the wider public, once was one of Rome’s finest, most talented, highly acclaimed poets – a proponent of the progressive artistic movement of the neoterics. Catullus, his (nowadays) rather more famous contemporary and fellow … Continue reading →

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Seneca on Gender Equality

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

It is a common trope in present-day discourse that feminism and the enforcement of gender equality are destroying the very foundations of our societies and ultimately ruining everything for us, to the detriment of those who seek equality in the … 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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