Tag Archives: Early Christianity

People of Changing Colour

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Peter Kruschwitz

In a vitriolic letter to Marcella about one Onasus, dated to A. D. 385, St. Jerome, one of the Christian fathers, makes a remarkable, commonly overlooked statement (Letters 42.2): non et lucus ideo dicatur, quod minime luceat, et Parcae ab … Continue reading →

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Valentine’s Valour

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Peter Kruschwitz

As the world once again celebrates undying love, chocolate, and flowers, it may be of interest to recall the story of Saint Valentine himself for a change. In his Legenda Aurea (‘Golden Legend’ – legend not as in ‘he’s a … Continue reading →

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End-of-Year Magic

Posted on December 23, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

India, according to the Natural History of the Elder Pliny, was home to some of the world’s most amazing animals (Plin. nat. 8.76, transl. H. Rackham): He says that in India there are also oxen with solid hoofs and one … 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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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 →

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All Work and No Play…?

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

This year’s August is a strange month for me. On the one hand, this August is the final month of my British Academy Fellowship, which has allowed me to work on my project ‘Poetry of the People’, focusing on the … Continue reading →

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Interpreting the Interpreter’s Poem

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Some time ago, I published a little piece about the idea that the etymology of a name should reveal something about the character of a person – nomen est omen – as reflected in the Latin inscriptions. One piece that … Continue reading →

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Undying Voices: The Poetry of Roman Britain

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Britain has produced some of the world’s most highly renowned, influential, and beautiful poetry – Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Shakespeare,  John Milton, Robert Burns, the Brontë sisters, Lewis Carroll, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, to name but a select few! … Continue reading →

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Departure, Abandonment, and Grief: Latin Poems about Death in Childbirth

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the poem for a Roman lap-dog named Margarita (‘Pearl’), whose splendid inscription I managed to visit in the British museum. The text of the inscription – moving, personal, and affectionate – has … Continue reading →

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Latin Poetry and the Limits of Roman Medicine

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

There is a notorious passage in Plutarch‘s Life of Cato the Elder (23.3-4), in which the Greek philosopher denounces the infamous censor‘s view on Greek medicine: It was not only Greek philosophers that he hated, but he was also suspicious … Continue reading →

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