Tag Archives: Fortress Europe

Control, Fear, and Rage: Ovid on Linguistic Isolation

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Peter Kruschwitz

I moved from Germany to Britain in September 2005. I have made this island my home – I work here, I live here, I have my friends here. I don’t put my beach towel over chairs in the library, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 28 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

Displaced Human Beings: Seneca, the Refugee Crisis, and Human Migration

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

In A. D. 41, long before he became one of Rome’s most powerful political figures, the Roman politician, Stoic philosopher, and writer Lucius Annaeus Seneca got to experience first hand what hundreds of thousands of people are enduring at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Europa, Europe, and the Compelling Imagery of the Latin Inscriptions

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Peter Kruschwitz

Memory is treacherous. Yet, I seem to remember rather vividly a time when our politicians talked about a project they called our ‘common European home’ (Mikhail Gorbachev) or envisioned a ‘Europe, Whole and Free’ (George H. W. Bush). I liked … Continue reading →

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

Tragedy, Epic, and the Real

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Peter Kruschwitz

On 3 October, 2013, a boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, a small island in the Mediterranean between Tunisia and the island of Malta, south of mainland Italy. The vessel is reported to have carried up to 500 … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment