Tag Archives: Language and Thought

Advice, Conciliation, Arbitration

Posted on March 15, 2018 by

It is difficult to find solutions in conflicts in which emotions run high, and it requires insight on either side of such conflicts that presumably not all demands can be met. At the same time, it requires a desire to … Continue reading →

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

Bokelmann’s shade

Posted on April 13, 2017 by

I am in North Frisia right now, spending a few days by the North Sea shore with my son. I fell in love with this primordial landscape when I was a child myself (rather longer ago than I care to … Continue reading →

Posted in Epigraphy, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Drama queens: Ummidia and Messalina acting it out

Posted on February 11, 2017 by

Yesterday I had the immense pleasure to present – again – at the JACT GCSE Latin and Greek Conference at Westminster School London. My talk covered two set texts for the GCSE Latin – Pliny’s letter 7.24 (on Ummidia Quadratilla) … Continue reading →

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

In memoriam Jo Cox MP

Posted on June 16, 2016 by

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 →

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

Leap Day Harmony

Posted on February 29, 2016 by

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

A is for … the Ancient Roman Alphabet!

Posted on February 26, 2016 by

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 →

Posted in Prose | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

First Things First

Posted on December 31, 2015 by

Gaius Caelius Donatus of Oppidum Novum in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis (now Ain Defla, Algeria) was really looking forward to New Year’s Day. An auspicious day, the Romans marked New Year’s Day with religious ceremonies and sacrifice (as T. … Continue reading →

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

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

Posted on November 13, 2015 by

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

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

Posted on November 9, 2015 by

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

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