Category Archives: Prose

A is for … the Ancient Roman Alphabet!

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

Ever wondered what Latin sounded like? Here is how Martianus Capella, a writer of the early fifth century A. D., describes the phonetics of the Latin alphabet  (De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii 3.261; cf. Gramm. VIII 307-8 K.): A sub … Continue reading →

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Pancake Day, Roman Style

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

It’s Pancake Day! Would you like to celebrate it, Roman style? Here is a quick and easy recipe from the late antique Roman cook book De re coquinaria, ascribed to one Apicius (7.11.8, transl. W. M. Hill, adapted): Ova spongia … Continue reading →

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Harrowing Statues: Pliny, Hannibal, and Cecil Rhodes

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

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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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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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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End Violence against Women!

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

November 25th has been declared the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. My colleagues at the EAGLE Europeana project have decided to mark the occasion with a reference to the funerary inscription of Prima Florentia, who died … 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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And the Owl doesn’t care…

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

The internet is a strange place – full of the most wondrous things and inspiration. Over the last year, I have published a number of blog posts to do with (mostly poetic) memorials for dogs in the Roman world – … Continue reading →

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Restoring a Ghost Inscription from Reading

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

I have deep respect for the immense learning, skills, and achievements of many of my academic teachers as well as other scholars with whom I was fortunate enough to cross paths at various stages of my professional life. An example … Continue reading →

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What have the Syrians ever done for us…?

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Things are difficult – and not particularly cheerful – at the moment. The so-called migrant crisis, the barbarism of ISIS troops in Syria and elsewhere, the humanitarian and fiscal crisis of Greece, Europe’s politicians’ utter inability to defend the human(e)ly … Continue reading →

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