Classical News
News and Gossip about the Ancient World
There is a separate page for PRESS CUTTINGS
- Rome
The much-trumpeted HBO/BBC joint production reached the UK last week (November 2005). I really wanted to love it: it's well-acted (Kenneth Cranham is pure Pompey), well-shot and there's excellent pace throughout - never a dull moment in fact. But as usual with such offerings, the accumulation of small things which jar and irritate cancel out the merits. I'm not going to bang on about the sex and the showering in bull's blood - these are the sort of scenes which must be assumed to be obligatory in any Roman epic - despite the complete lack of evidence that such things ever occurred, if it's Rome, there must be an orgy (or two or three). Fair enough - film-makers have to live. What is inexcusable is the total perversion of the known historical record; and they are dealing with one of the best-documented periods in all history. Gaius Octavius was born in 63 BC (Cicero's consulship). Episode 1 of Rome is set in 52 BC. Octavius - anachronistically called "Octavian" which he did not become until his adoption by his great uncle Julius - sets out alone on a magnficent white charger to visit said great uncle, fresh from his triumph at Alesia, in Gaul. He may well have delivered a speech at his father's funeral at the age of 12, precocious brat that he was. But how can we have him riding off to Gaul at the age of 10 or 11? Ludicrous. Homer at least had Odysseus hang around for 7 years with Calypso, so that Telemachus would be old enough when his father finally met him in Ithaca. And the Oedipal relationship with sex-queen Atia is equally absurd - Octavius lived with his grandmother(Caesar's sister) from the age of 4 , and after her death with Marcius Philippus. No more.
- Sun and Mirror ineffective?
It's long been a an article of faith that Archimedes used mirrors to set fire to and destroy the Roman fleet during the siege of Syracuse in 213 BC. The story in fact comes from Iohannes Zonaras, a Byzantine chronicler of 12th century AD, who précised the works of earlier writers (including Cassius Dio, for the period of the Punic Wars). A team from MIT last week tried to set fire to a ship with mirrors in San Francisco harbour- they couldn't get it to do more than smoulder a bit. Having failed themselves, they now claim that the great Archimedes could not possibly have succeeded. Seems a pretty feeble experiment to me! [Guardian 24 Oct 2005 - with Zonaras erroneously assigned to AD 12 rather that 12 century AD!]
- Helen of Troy, Goddess, princess, whore
Published this month [October 2005] - following in the footsteps of the original glamorous "TV historian" Michael Wood (In Search of the Trojan War), Bettany Hughes' book promises to prove that Helen was a real historical figure - possibly "bald-headed, bare-breasted and bloodthirsty". See Jonathan Thompson' article in Independent on Sunday (http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article318223.ece), and a review, also in the Independent, which praises the scholarship, while teasing the author for her "girly romanticism". http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article320995.ece
For the Classics Pages take on Helen, try here.
- Villa dei Papyri
Future excavation of the Villa of the Papyri (inspiration for the Getty Museum in California) is now assured thanks to the support of Hewlett Packard millionaire David W Packard. Around 1800 scrolls were found there in previous digs: it is believed that there are thousands more to be found, possibly including many of the lost works of Greek and Latin literature. Decipherment is a problem: the scrolls were carbonised by the eruption of 79 AD, and then soaked with water. They are extremely fragile, and have to be unrolled with very great care, in an atmosphere with no draughts! (Unpleasant in Naples). They can only be read in the height of summer when there is sufficient light overhead in Naples - artificial light is useless for distingishing the black writing from the black burnt papyrus. But amzing discoveries have already been made. See the Philodemus Project website. [February 2005] - Troy Effect
BRAD Pitt's film role in Troy has helped make Homer, who has been dead for 2800 years, Britain's favourite poet. Online sales of works by the ancient Greek writer outstripped any other poet in the past year. His epic The Iliad, about the Trojan War, sold most. Next was The Odyssey, dealing with hero Odysseus's adventures returning home from Troy, says a survey by internet firm Amazon. Fiona Buckland, of Amazon, said: 'We have seen a huge revival in classical Greek epic poetry this year, which we have put down to the Troy effect.' [Source:The Daily Record, Oct 07, 2004] - Latin
"Learning Latin is like getting x-ray specs. It shows the infrastructure of so many things". I thoroughly recommend Annalisa Barbieri's article on the joys of Latin ("Amo, amas, I love a lass") in Wednesday's Guardian [Guardian, June 3 2004]. Direct link. - Troy
Nothing to do with the condom advert below: this is apparently a film "based" on Homer's Iliad directed by Wolfgang (Das Boot) Petersen and starring Brad Pitt as Achilles. When I used to teach the Iliad we always discussed who we'd cast in the film version - I have to say that B Pitt was never mentioned: but our debate was theoretical only. We knew that the Greeks had deliberately avoided the Iliad as a source for drama, out of a sense of awe. It was already the supreme tragedy - how could it be improved upon? I fear the worst - we know from the trailer and pre-release hype that the gods will not
be
appearing. At least DeMille didn't try to make his Ten Commandments
- back in the great days of film epic - without some reference to the
Almighty. Also we seem to be going to get the expected cast of thousands
(no CG effects, apparently) - instead of Homer's individual duels, the
trailer shows literally thousands of chariots hurtling across the plain
in a Lord of the Rings kind of way. And the film will not end with the
death of Hector and Priam's visit to Achilles: it includes the wooden
horse, and no doubt therefore the full sack. Will Achilles still be
there leading the attack? Or will the director have found a way to deal
with the arrival of Neoptolemus, fully grown and ready for battle (at
age 10?) But I predict a "Perfect Storm" (Petersen's last
blockbuster) from classicists! [April 2004]
- As not used by King Priam?
A
widely advertised condom with a humdinger of a brand name. How different
would the story of the Trojan royal family, with Priam and Hecuba's
50 sons and 50 daughters, have been had sensible family planning been
available? On a similar tack, I salute the CD burning software that
has decided to call itself Nero. See "Nero was
framed" below. [April 2004]
- School holiday with a difference!
You can now spend your vacation training to be a gladiator - in a Gladiator School in Rome (where else?). See this article in the Sunday Times of 22 February 2004. - Maecenas, still patronising after all these years
Colin
Tweedy, chief executive of Arts and Business, hopes to find an extra
£140m for the arts by enlisting donors in a scheme that rewards
them with a modest lapel pin with the head of Maecenas, now proclaimed
the founding father of giving to the arts by Arts and Business.
"The idea of Maecenas is to change the culture, to make people - individuals and businesses - proud of giving to the arts, to make them boast about it, to make them feel loved and valued in return. The money is there, we just have to extract it. We have to teach people how to give, and teach arts organisations how to ask."
A closer study of the Augustan period might have revealed that Maecenas was truly the patron of Spin Doctors rather than the arts - he recruited the top figures from popular culture and bribed them to celebrate the regime. But Horace and Virgil were clever enough to include their own agenda while apparently toeing the line. [Guardian 1 March 2004]
- Klassic comment
Asked
why she was bringing out an album of classical music, popstrelle Myleene
Klass opined that it was to educate the kids, so classical music
does not die out, "like Latin". Thanks, babe.[October , 2003]
- Catterick Camp
Most of today's UK papers (even the Guardian) have been unable to resist the invitation to the innuendofest of the century as a result of publication of a catalogue of recent archaeological discoveries at Catterick (now, as then - when it was Cataractonium - an important army centre in North Yorkshire). You expect better from the Classics Pages - so here are the facts. "Among a huge number of finds was the skeleton of a male wearing several items of jewellery: necklaces and bracelets made of jet [a semi-precious stone available locally], a shale armlet, and an expanding bronze anklet. He appears to have been buried with two pebbles in his mouth."
The rest is speculation: as Sarah Kennedy said on Radio 2 this morning - "how do they know?" If he was a priest of Cybele - yes, an altar to Cybele was found at Corstopitum (Corbridge) further north on Hadrian's Wall - he would have been a eunuch - yes, a castration clamp has been found in London, - and he could well have worn a wig and female dress (but don't many Christian priests today wear sexually ambiguous robes?). [May 22, 2002] - Atlantis : latest nonsense
I had ignored the theory that Atlantis was the drowned city of Helike (Eliki) on the south coast of the Gulf of Corinth, despite a recent UKTV "documentary". The fact that a web search for Helike/Atlantis comes up with a local olive oil company probably tells you all you need to know. But a new book by Eberhard Zangger [The Future of the Past, Weidenfeld £20.00] argues passionately that Atlantis was Troy. Plato's date of 8000 years before Solon is explained away by counting years as Egyptian lunar years, ie months. 8000 months before Solon's Egypt trip would indeed take us to the Mycenaean period - which ties in with Plato's descriptions of weaponry and fortifications, and the Atlanteans skill in the arts. If Troy was the only enemy of Greece in this era, Troy must have been Atlantis. [Zangger makes it sound more convincing in the book!]. Appropriately, the theory has been ridiculed by the experts - archaeologists say it's "out of the question", and the philologist Daniel Mannsperger thinks, like me, that an archaeological dig for Atlantis is as good an idea as trying to dig up Plato's Republic (or Utopia, or Erewhon, or Liliput, or Neverneverland). As one reviewer brilliantly puts it: "the most likely provenance of the tale [of Atlantis] - somewhere between Plato's ears - is rarely considered by Atlantis enthusiasts." [Chris Lavers in the Guardian, 5 January 2002] Previous rubbish: see News Archive 1, News Archive 2 and News Archive 4 - Cave canes!
The long-standing"dead
dogs of Silchester" mystery has only become more impenetrable with the
discovery of a unique ivory knife-handle showing two copulating dogs.
Professor Michael Fulford and his team have puzzled for years over the
strange dog burials in
Calleva Atrebatum (a wealthy regional capital of Roman Britain which
was never resettled - now usually known by the name of a nearby village,
Silchester). Once believed to be pets lovingly interred when the city
was deliberately abandoned, but now perhaps to be seen as part of some
extraordinary cult. Why was a dog carefully buried "standing up"? Why
are there three graves where two dogs are buried together, and one where
a dog is buried with a child? How did this beautiful and expensive knife
(possibly several hundred years old when the dogs were buried) come
to be in a dogs' grave? [report on the Guardian January 1, 2002]
- €Ave Euro!
The Euro - which became the only legal currency in most of Europe at midnight - has the Greek letter epsilon as its symbol, with an extra line to emphasise its stability. Let's hope. More on Varro's page. [January 1st, 2002]
- Nero was framed
Amazing
how current events affect history! Nero - for so long one of the world's
greatest mass-murderers - along with Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot - has
been recently undergoing retrospective rehabilitation. Not long ago
he would have been more likely to have been compared with Bin Laden:
now he's more of a Bush - a victim of terrorism. A Channel 4 documentary
(based on the work of Professor Gerhard Baudy of Konstanz University)
claims that the great fire of Rome in 64 AD was not Nero's doing, but
perpetrated by evil fundamentalists. The 1st century AD Al-Qaida was
a revolutionary cell of extremist Christian fanatics - who, like their
21st century counterparts, detested the only superpower of the time,
and believed they were doing God's work in giving Armageddon a helping
hand. Because Christianity ultimately triumphed in Rome, its apologists
were able to rewrite history, and put all the blame on poor old Nero.
And Tacitus (originator of the "fiddling while Rome burns" cliché),
though not a Christian, was a puritanical Republican - hence his eager
slander of Nero in his lurid account of the fire and its aftermath (300
Christians tarred and set alight to illuminate Nero's gardens for his
crepuscular strolls). Personally I've always believed the fire was an
accident (Juvenal says how common fires were) - and I never rated the
alternative theory: Nero, the aesthete, as a sort of Prince Charles
who so loathed the architectural mess of ancient Rome that he burned
it down to make room for his much more tasteful Domus Aurea.
- Harrius Potterus et Philosophi Lapis
Harry Potter, the world's most famous boy wizard, is to have his daring exploits translated into Latin and ancient Greek, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. Bloomsbury, the publishers of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, have hired retired classics teacher Peter Needham to write a Latin version. J. K. Rowling hopes the translations will inspire children who are learning Latin and ancient Greek at school. The Philosopher's Stone is the first of Rowling's four Potter novels and the Warner Bros.' film version of the book is claiming box-office records around the world. The Potter novels have sold more than 100-million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages. "We aren't under any illusion that Latin and Greek [translations] will be bestsellers, but we think that it will mean much more fun lessons for anyone studying Latin and Greek," Rowling's editor at Bloomsbury, Emma Matthewson, told the paper. Rowling is a classics fan. She started studying the subject with French at university before focusing solely on the modern language. Her Potter books are studded with classical references. Many of the spells are in Latin. Fluffy, the three-headed dog that guards the philosopher's stone, is based on the mythical beast Cerberus. And the motto of the Hogwarts School for Wizards is Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, which means "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon." Needham expects to finish his Latin translation by August next year. "It's an ideal job for an old bloke in retirement," he told the paper. "For the time being I'm calling Harry 'Harrius Potter.' It declines perfectly well so that, for example, we could have Harrium Potterum. "The literal translation of Potter would be Figulus, but I very much hope that Potter will survive." Agence-France Presse,Tuesday, December 4, 2001 - Muslims dig Christian monastery
PALESTINIAN archaeologists have unearthed an undamaged fifth-century mosaic in the Gaza Strip at a site believed to be the location of the oldest monastery in the Middle East. Last week's find at Tal Umm Amer, four miles south of Gaza City, has been hailed as an archaeological discovery of great significance. The archaeologists working at the monastery are Muslim, but see nothing unusual about their desire to protect and promote a Christian shrine in an area inhabited by only a few thousand Christians. They hope that one day thousands of people will come to visit and appreciate their work in uncovering historical treasures. "This is our history; this is our civilisation and we want our people to know about it," said Yasser Matar, the co-director of the archaeological operation, as a burst of gunfire - echoing the region's troubles - sounded in the distance. "First we were Christians and later we became Muslims. These people were our forefathers: the ancient Palestinians." [Telegraph, 2 December 2001] - Grumio cenam parat?
Much alarm has been generated in Italy and internationally by Italian
prime minister Berlusconi's proposal to privatise museum and archaeological
sites. Pompeii, for example, could be hired out for that exclusive dinner
party. Apparently the Sistine Chapel has been available for private
hire (weddings, though presumably not barmitzvahs) for some time. [Guardian
November 24 2001]
- Games ancient and modern
George Bush has said there'll be no hiatus in the war in Afghanistan for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. During the ancient Olympics, all combat was suspended to allow competitors to travel freely and safely from their homes to the Olympic sanctuary in Elis. I also noted that when the Republic of Ireland played Iran at football recently in Teheran, an exception was made to allow some female Irish fans to watch. In this, the ancient world was similar - no women could watch or take part in the Olympics. See my athletics page. [November 2001] - A clean breast
More and more men are shaving . . . their chests. Flip through the men's magazines. Check out your favorite TV and movie stars. Take a look at hip-hoppers, boy bands or just about any dude in his late teens or 20s preening on the campus quad or during spring break. No, not models or bodybuilders. Just regular old Middle American boys. "I think it just comes from advertising," Mangan said. "There is so much more emphasis today on the body. They are inundated from the time they are young with images that tell them they have to be sexy and have the perfect body." Today that image - chestwise - is of the hairless wonder, and it has historical precedent. Ian Worthington, a professor of ancient Greek history at the University of Missouri, says that among the younger citizens of ancient Thebes, Athens and Corinth, "it was believed that chest hair hid the body beautiful. The young especially shaved," Worthington said. "It is something the Romans picked up. The Romans had their bathhouses and athletic festivals. It was common to go to the bathhouse where they would put oil on their bodies and then have someone come and scrape it (the hair) off." Guys who shave these days say they generally use regular razors or clippers, every couple of weeks - "whenever it needs to be done, when it starts getting like a low, cheap carpet," said Kansas sophomore Dan Koob, 19, of St. Louis. And yes, Horn said, when it starts growing back, "it's itchier than (heck)." [Knight Ridder Newspapers Nov. 28, 2001] - Tempora mutantur: United States and Sparta
The new Russo-American friendship marks a huge change. It is a change not only from the Cold-War world but from the world of Sept. 10, 2001. Back then, the Russians were playing the China card and the European card while fretting about America's plans for NATO expansion and abrogation of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty. Not anymore. Historians will see the roots of change before Sept. 11, when Bush had already proclaimed Putin's trustworthiness and Putin had already placed Islamic terrorism near the top of his security agenda. Yet there has been a revolution even so, for which both men deserve credit, perhaps especially Putin, who moved with lightning speed to America's side after the terror attacks. The world has turned with stunning swiftness, but that ought not to surprise us. History is full of revolutions in diplomatic affairs. States often turn on a dime. Take the ancient Spartans, for instance. For several generations after 480 BC, they basked in the heroic afterglow of the 300 Spartans who died, to the last man, at Thermopylae in northern Greece rather than let the Persian invaders through. By 412 BC, however, nostalgia wasn't what it used to be. Sparta made a treaty with its sworn enemy Persia in order to finance its blood feud with Athens. As part of the price, Sparta agreed to surrender half the Greeks of the Aegean to Persian rule. [Newsday, November 18, 2001] - Pottering in Academia
In the mid-1980s, Joanne Kathleen Rowling studied French and Classics at Exeter University in southwestern England. Eliza T. Dresang, a professor at Florida State University's School of Information Studies, told UPI that the literary allusions in Rowling's popular works have provoked much serious scholarship throughout the English-speaking world and would generate many doctoral dissertations. Not since "Alice in Wonderland" has children's literature received this kind of highbrow attention. Dresang herself has written a chapter to the forthcoming academic tome "Harry Potter and the Ivory Tower" in which she devotes 11 typescript pages to Rowling's choice of the first name of Harry's friend Hermione Granger -- the series' principal female character. The professor wrote that a Hermione appears in Greek mythology (see Euripides' Helen), in St. Luke's Acts of the Apostles, in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale," as a character in D.H. Lawrence's novel "Women in Love," and as the title ("HERmione") of the autobiographical novel of imagist poet Hilda Doolittle, Lawrence's friend… [UPI 18 November 2001] - see also Benefits of a Classical Education - Juvenal 0 Herodotus 1
Creditur olim velificatus Athos, et quidquid Graecia mendax / audet in historia
Historians - as well as Juvenal - have debated whether the famed Canal of Xerxes was really dug all the way from coast to coast. Some have doubted its existence, pointing to a rocky plateau that they argue would have made the construction an impossible task for workers of that day. Now, scientists from Britain and Greece have come up with what they say is conclusive evidence that the canal was built. Using geological information gathered from several meters below the earth's surface, where the structure now lies buried, the scientists have drawn a map detailing the canal's dimensions and course. The findings confirm Herodotus' account, which some scholars have long regarded with scepticism. Buried under centuries of silt and alluvium, the structure is testament to remarkable military strategy, work-force management and civil engineering. It also tells of shortsightedness and haste, and of a king who was probably in such a hurry to conquer that he never thought of preserving the canal as a permanent waterway. "From the analysis of sediments in the canal, we know that it probably had a short lifetime," said Richard Jones, the lead researcher on the project and an archaeologist at the University of Glasgow. "The Persians did not think of it as a monument that would remain for centuries. Once their ships were through, that was the end." Spanning about 30 meters at the surface, the canal was just wide enough for two war galleys to pass. "It was a colossal enterprise," said Ben Isserlin, an archaeologist at the University of Leeds who started the canal exploration project in the early 1990s. "There were no pulleys. So the workers had to shovel earth into baskets and pass them along from one person to the next, all the way to the top." [New York Times Nov 12 2001]
- 1066 and all that?
KEY events in British history remain a mystery for young people, with a third believing that D-Day marked the end of the Second World War. There is still confusion over Henry VIII's wives. A third thought he had eight wives; others were surprised to learn that Queen Victoria reigned for 64 years. One in 12 believed that 1066, the year of the Battle of Hastings, was the date of the Roman invasion of Britain, according to a survey of 1,000 people aged 15 to 24 by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Christine Hodgson, direct marketing manager of Encyclopaedia Britannica, said: “As a nation whose history has shaped the face of the world, it seems incredible that the younger generation has decided to dismiss it. Britain in particular is envied for its rich history. It's a great shame that the young take so much for granted. I think it's time for all of us, not just young people, to hit the books again.” [News report 4 November 2001] - Anthrax: was this the plague in the Iliad?
Anthrax [writes Guy Gugliotta]is one of the world's oldest afflictions, a scourge known throughout history for its ability to cripple and kill -- an old and hated enemy, as horrifying in ancient times as it is today in the age of bioterrorism. When Pharoah refused to free the Israelites, the Bible tells us, Egypt was attacked with 10 plagues. Number five was a "grievous murrain" that killed cattle, and number six, "a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast throughout the land." Homer, at the beginning of the Iliad, described a "burning wind of plague" that attacked "pack animals first, and dogs, but soldiers too." And Virgil's Georgics record an epidemic so grotesque that "in the very stalls" animal carcasses were "rotting with putrid foulness." [Washington Post Monday, November 5, 2001] - A colorful mosaic accidentally unearthed
The 1,640-year-old mosaic, which at 32 feet by six feet is the 10th largest discovered in Britain, was found by workers constructing a drive for an office building near Ilminster in Somerset, English Heritage said. The find was completely unexpected as there were no other indications of Roman remains nearby. Unusually for a mosaic found in Britain, this one depicts a dolphin and does not have the strong geometrical pattern of others discovered in southwest England. Archeologists plan to rebury the mosaic, made of red, white and blue blocks of Somerset limestone and tiles, to preserve it for the winter. They will start working on it next spring. David Neal, a mosaic expert who dated the find, said the site "was clearly one of considerable status, likely to be a substantial villa." The mosaic is thought to have formed a floor, or possibly a courtyard, in a villa close to the Fosse Way - a Roman road now known as the A303 - which ran from Lincoln in eastern England to Exeter in the southwest and was one of the major routes in Roman Britain. Workmen also dug up some purple and green fragments of painted wall plaster, which are considered extremely rare. A number of wealthy people are known to have built large villas along the Fosse Way, but many have been damaged by building work or plowing. [The Associated Press LONDON (November 7, 2001 11:15 a.m. EST] - Inventive Romans kept water flowing
(Filed: 27/09/2001) A FEAT of Roman engineering that was unsurpassed for more than 1,000 years has been unearthed beneath London. http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2001/09/27/nwaterbig.jpeg Archaeologists have discovered two "outstanding" water wheels, powered by a treadmill and capable of bringing 60,000 gallons of water to the surface each day. The bucket-chains are the most complete and best preserved Roman water lifting machinery ever found and may have supplied London's public buildings, bath houses or factories. Experts believe the wheels are so sophisticated that Britain's first industrial revolution can be said to have taken place in the first century. The machinery was discovered in two infilled wells in Gresham Street in the City of London earlier this summer. The site was at the heart of Roman London, close to its amphitheatre and near a bath house. Tree-ring dating has shown that the earliest well and wheel was built around 63AD, shortly after Boudicca's rebellion left much of the city in ruin. The 20ft well may have been part of its rebuilding. Water was drawn using around two dozen boxes, carved from oak and each able to hold three pints. They were fixed together in a loop using wooden and metal pins. Although nothing remains of the lifting mechanism, contemporary accounts suggest that a treadmill powered by a slave would have hauled the chain. The well was used for about 10 years but collapsed and was filled in by 71AD. The second wheel was built around 109AD and was used for several decades until it was destroyed by fire. Its chain was far more sophisticated and was made from links of wrought iron, many of which are still intact. "Nobody has ever discovered anything like this in Britain," he said. "This is of the quality of Medieval Europe or even the Industrial Revolution." The remains, which include intact wooden buckets, metal links and oak planks used to line the well, are now on display at the Museum of London. [Daily Telegraph 27 Sept 2001] - Found: the harbour that held the "Thousand Ships"
Helen of Troy's was (according to Marlowe)the face that launched a thousand ships. In search of her, where did those Greek ships land in Troy? Scientists, joined by a Greek scholar, discovered where Troy's harbor might have been. Kraft and his colleagues used the Iliad and the Geographies of Strabo, among other writings, to help them correlate their scientific findings and delineate the famous harbor. Kraft will present these findings on Wednesday, November 7, at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting, A Geo-Odyssey, in Boston, Massachusetts. "My research interests are focused on the relations of archaeological and historical sites to changes in coastal geomorphologies over the past 10 millennia--mainly in coastal Greece, Turkey, and Delaware,” Kraft said. "When our sedimentary facies are correlated with details of the writings of Strabo (first century AD), we can identify possible locales of the allied Greek fleet harbor and fortifications as well as the harbors of Troy and the later New Ilium (new Troy). Strabo provides both distances and details of coastal morphologies that are compatible with RC-14 [Radio Carbon 14]dated coastal marine geometries determined by sedimentary analyses. Clearly, the product of historical and legendary writings of antiquity and (times) and our geological analyses of Holocene Epoch sedimentary environmental facies provide synergistic resultant ancient geographies." Geological Society of America - A Roman out-of-town leisure complex
Compared to Las Vegas by its British discoverers - though it sounds to me more like Brent Cross (shopping centre in North London - ed.) - an amphitheatre with shopping mall attached has been discovered 45 miles south of Rome - a day's ride down the Via Salaria or the Via Flaminia. As there was no actual town there, it's being assumed that Romans and others would come for a day's shopping and entertainment [Guardian 17 June 2000] -
Pompeii and circumstance
The traditional image of Pompeii as a rather dull middle-class town remarkable only for having survived has taken a knock. Antonio Varone (Pompeii: the Mysteries of a Buried City) claims that there were massive inequalities in the town. A rich ruling elite kept the poor masses where they wanted them with subsidised prostitutuion and wine, and free entry to the Amphitheatre - and used their weealth to escape the erution, while the proles struggled to collect their few belongings. The recent discovery of a hotel complex with a luxury restaurant just outside Pompeii would seem to to add weight to Mr Varone's argument - but the jury is out.[Guardian 13 June 2000] -
Segedunum is open for business
A £9m project opened this week in North East England near the end of Hadrian's Wall - at Wallsend. The vast site includes a complete section of the wall itself, the first Roman cavalry barracks to be excavated in Britain - and a fully recontructed operational bath house. Prebooked paries will actually be able to go through the complete ritual of the ancient thermae - frigidarium, caldarium, cold plunge - the lot. [Guardian June 2000] -
Sulpicia - Girl Power from the 1st century BC
Soon to be published for the first time in Engish - the only woman from ancient Rome whose poetry survives - and that in half a dozen short elegies, less than 50 lines altogether. Long dismissed as "written for her by Tibullus" (among whose work they appear) - or bad verses from a schoolgirl's exercise book they are now being actually read - and their flavour is unmistakably 21st century. She comes across as sexy and uninhibited. The new translation is published by Hearing Eye, 999 Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2RX (£ 6.00 + postage). Check her out first in my translation on the new Sulpicia page. - Ancient pollution detected - from Space
Sites of ancient metal working which may still be dangerous have been pinpointed by the space shuttle Endeavour. Buried slag-heaps and other dumps of unpleasant waste which had been covered with soil are clearly revealed by the 3D radar device. Health officials are now focusing on sites of Roman lead mines in the UK, while elsewhere remains of Greek and Phoenician mines will come under scrutiny. Environmentalists had long been worried that children could be harmed playing where soil is contaminated - now the detritus of the ancients will be as easy to detect as that of more recent polluters. [Independent on Sunday 20 February 2000]
The Classics Pages are written and designed by
Comments, questions and contributions welcome.