Women Latin poets – paperback

It is just possible that you didn't snap up a copy of Women Latin Poets –
Language, Gender, and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century by Jane Stevenson, when it was on sale in hardback for £130.

Now it's in paperback for £25 which is reasonable for 682 pages.

The fact that OUP has thought it worth issuing in paperback says something about how the hardback was received.

Arbeia fort development plans

Rogue Classicism spotted this report on Journal Live. See my videos of the fort here, and a few photos here.

PLANS to build a visitor centre for one of South Tyneside’s major attractions have been shelved.

After listening to local residents and community groups, South Tyneside councillors have decided not to go ahead with a proposal to develop the centre for Arbeia Roman fort on the Lawe Top at South Shields.

The fort is rated as one of the main cultural assets in South Tyneside.

It is part of Hadrian’s Wall world heritage site and has provided many significant archaeological finds.

Over the last 20 years a series of reconstructions have taken place, including one of the gatehouses, the fort commander’s quarters and barracks.

The existing museum on the site is very limited and any development on the existing site would conflict with its status as a scheduled ancient monument and archaeological remains within the site.

Read the rest …

A view about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

It never fell – it was a takeover by the Germans after merging cultures, according to this piece on Anthologyoi.com:

The Germanic tribes have been blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire; however this is incorrect. For the most part the collapse of the Roman empire was not a collapse of an empire, but the slow integration of Germanic custom with Roman culture. This means the collapse of the Roman empire was a transfer of power from one ruling party to another. This transfer was neither peaceful nor quick, but it is the foundation of modern western society and Europe as we know it today.1

The Germanic tribes have been blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire; however this is incorrect. For the most part the collapse of the Roman empire was not a collapse of an empire, but the slow integration of Germanic custom with Roman culture. This means the collapse of the Roman empire was a transfer of power from one ruling party to another. This transfer was neither peaceful nor quick, but it is the foundation of modern western society and Europe as we know it today.1

The Germanic tribes and Romans first interacted in 100 BC, and for the next 400 years there were many skirmishes with the Romans prevailing, but starting around 300 AD with the first Völkerwanderung or migration the Germans pushed hard on the Roman defenses and in many places began to merge with the existing Roman populations.

Germans were then, as today, divided into tribes: the major tribes that came into contact with the Roman Empire were the Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards. The first of these Germanic tribes to enter into the Roman empire officially were the Visigoths who settled near the Danube frontier until they rebelled and sacked Rome in 410 AD, but they moved on and settled in Spain, and the Western Roman Empire was ruled by Proxy from the Eastern Roman Empire. However, while the Visigoths only sacked Rome, Theodoric the Great, leading the Ostrogoths, conquered Italy and set himself up as ruler of a post-Roman kingdom. Even though Theodoric conquered Italy he still respected the Roman institutions and everything about his government from the courts to the coins were Roman. He even appointed Roman aristocrats to help administrate the country in a very Romanesque way.

The Germanic tribes and Romans first interacted in 100 BC, and for the next 400 years there were many skirmishes with the Romans prevailing, but starting around 300 AD with the first Völkerwanderung or migration the Germans pushed hard on the Roman defenses and in many places began to merge with the existing Roman populations.

Germans were then, as today, divided into tribes: the major tribes that came into contact with the Roman Empire were the Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards. The first of these Germanic tribes to enter into the Roman empire officially were the Visigoths who settled near the Danube frontier until they rebelled and sacked Rome in 410 AD, but they moved on and settled in Spain, and the Western Roman Empire was ruled by Proxy from the Eastern Roman Empire. However, while the Visigoths only sacked Rome, Theodoric the Great, leading the Ostrogoths, conquered Italy and set himself up as ruler of a post-Roman kingdom. Even though Theodoric conquered Italy he still respected the Roman institutions and everything about his government from the courts to the coins were Roman. He even appointed Roman aristocrats to help administrate the country in a very Romanesque way.

Read the rest…

Daily Mail introduces tonight's BBC1 programme on Attila

Attila the Hun: Why does his destruction of a civilisation have parallels with today?

By WILLIAM NAPIER – More by this author » Last updated at 01:07am on 13th February 2008

Never before had the citizens of the Roman Empire seen invaders so alien and terrifying as this.

Erupting in a thunder of hooves and drums, spears held aloft, the marauding army darkened the sky with their arrows.

Their heads were part-shaven, their hair tied in top-knots, their faces decorated with tattoos made with needles dipped in soot.

They rode dressed in furs, with capes of buffalo hide, atop horses whose reins hung with the severed heads of their enemies.

And upon their broad chests were etched suns and moons and faces with writhing snakes for hair, their dusty backs adorned with bloody handprints slapped on by their comrades.

Some set deer's antlers on their horses' heads to make them appear more fearsome or filed their own teeth to sharp points and smeared red berry juice around their mouths.

Others dyed the manes and fetlocks of their horses a similar colour, as if they had already waded deep in blood.

These were the warriors who, as one chronicler of the time put it with ghastly simplicity, “ground the whole of Europe to dust.”

And at their head rode a man whose name has remained a byword for terror, bloodshed and atrocity for 16 long centuries: Attila The Hun.

Tonight the BBC is showing a dramatic reconstruction of this great warrior's life.

Read the rest ….