Tag Archives: Big questions

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 →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in Epigraphy, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in Prose | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

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 →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

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 →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Lest We Forget

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Until I moved to Britain, just over ten years ago, 11 November exclusively marked one thing for me: the beginning of the carnival season. In the United Kingdom, however, as well as in many other states, 11 November marks an … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Fruit of the Doom: an Image of Life, Death, and Letting Go in Roman Poetry

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Death has been on my mind lately, having recently learnt of the untimely passing of two of my colleagues at the University of Reading. Whether death was imminent or came suddenly, whether it hits the old or the young – … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Howdy, Stranger . . . !

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

As the current debate over refugees, migrants, EU-wide quotas, and immigration-vs-national identity strikes increasingly bizarre, shrill, and discordant notes, I recently had the pleasure to contemplate in somewhat greater depth a remarkable funerary inscription from Aquileia in north-east Italy: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmina Epigraphica, Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 65 Comments

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 →

Posted in Epigraphy, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments