New candidate for the OBI, alas!

I received a Christmas card today from my successor as head of Classics at Bruton School for Girls – yes, she always gets things done in very good time – telling me the sad news that she had to leave after 21 years because she was being made part-time 'following her (the head's) decision to [...]

Why only plumbing can prevent the fall of Rome

An interesting article in the Daily Telegraph
By Hilary Clarke in Rome
(Filed: 20/11/2005)
An urgent rescue operation is being launched to save some of Rome's most important ancient ruins, including the palace where Julius Caesar once lived, from the ravages of increasingly violent rainstorms that are undermining their foundations.
Archaeologists fear that buildings on the Palatine Hill, [...]

Catullus newly Englished

There's a long review here of the new text and translation of Catullus by Peter Green.
The reviewer Emily Wilson at one point writes:
As an example of the liveliness and the vigor of Green's translation, here is one of Catullus's most famous poems (poem 2, Passer, deliciae meae puellae), in which the poet envies his girlfriend's [...]

Romans remembered – in Cambridgeshire

From the Cambridge Evening News Ely edition:
TEACHERS swapped their suits for Roman costumes to lead children in an exciting themed activity day.
Youngsters from The King's School Ely were issued with Roman names and tunics in a quest to track down a missing Roman called Marcus Maximus.
They popped along to the Cambridgeshire Environmental Education Service Upware [...]

America = the Roman Republic?

It's commonplace at the moment to read comparisons (written by Americans) between what they see as the decadence of the USA and that of the later Roman Empire. This one makes the comparison with the Republic:
I recently ran across a prophecy that struck me for its timeliness. It reads, “They will sink into a swamp [...]

A Canadian viewer laments the end of "Rome"

Will there be a second season of the TV serial? It's not certain, according to The Toronto Star critic.
It looks like I'm just going to have to go cold turkey.
Last Sunday night, when Brutus and his bunch turned Caesar into a pasta colander, Rome resolved its history-driven plot line for the season — and perhaps [...]

olympic_torch.jpg

How to drive out the devil

The sting is in the tail of this editorial from yesterday's San Antonio Express-News:
Editorial: The demonic horror of Latin
Web Posted: 11/27/2005 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
Bishop Andrea Gemma of Naples is the enemy of the devil and hero to schoolchildren everywhere.
Gemma is best known as one of the Roman Catholic Church's leading experts on exorcism. [...]

Thinking outside the (Latin) box

An article in Managing Automation, posted today, suggests that it was because Leonardo was no good at Latin that he had to become an original thinker instead. Hmm!
The article begins:

Leonardo da Vinci, having missed early instruction in Latin as a child, was unable in later life to learn it properly. Since it was the language [...]

Pope encourages use, study of Latin

From the Catholic World News
Vatican, Nov. 28 (CWNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the use of Latin in the Church, and the study of Latin by young people, as he met on November 28 with the members of the Latinitas Foundation, a group dedicated to the promotion of Latin.
Latin should not merely be conserved, [...]