New York Metropolitan new Greek and Roman gallery

Video with general view of the gallery, and an enthusiastic commentary concentrating on a Dionysus statue. The statue is not one the the ‘greats’ but the commentary brings out the skill involved in carving drapery.

Greek Sculpture

I don’t know how legal this is, but a ten minute excerpt from Niel Spivey’s BBC documentary “How Art Made the World” is on YouTube here.

Notice of AGM

Members of ARLT are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting to be held at 2.00pm on Thursday 24th July 2008 at Uppingham School, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9UD.

“The Wall: Rome’s Greatest Frontier”, By Alistair Moffat

Review in The Independent on Sunday

The Economist on the state of Greek teaching

From the Economist. Thanks to Rogue Classicism for the link.

ATROPOS is the Fate who cuts the lifeline once your time is up; she would seem to have her shears out for the study of classical (Ancient) Greek. Once, with Latin, the staple of a civilised education, it is now flickering on the sidelines.

At first sight, the statistics are positively wine-dark. As part of school education, countries may maintain it in theory but rarely in practice. Portuguese pupils have it as an option in their final year; in Sweden fewer than 100 schoolchildren study it, in Belgium around 800. In Britain, of a mere 241 entrants for Greek A-level – typically taken at 18 – in 2007, fully 226 were from independent (private) schools.

The problem for Greek is that snobbery does not trounce pragmatism. Latin, once seemingly moribund, is on the rise again in Britain and America. It is not just useful: in a competitive system, it sends a coded message about the nature of the school, and the kind of pupils it attracts. But finding the time and teachers to teach even one dead language properly is hard enough. A second imposes near-intolerable strains on the timetable.

Yet mingle with the 300-plus participants from Britain, Europe, America, Hong Kong and elsewhere indulging in frantic pedagogy at the Hellenists’ version of Woodstock (an annual summer school at Bryanston in southern England) and a different picture emerges. Monopod classicists add Greek to their existing Latin, covering a semester’s-worth of study in a fortnight. For relaxation, they can listen to the world’s academic authorities disputing the pronunciation of Homer and illuminating the knotty wordplay of Plato’s “Republic”.

The rosy fingers are touching universities too. Though some classics departments in the United States have had to close or merge, the number of students enrolled in Greek has been going up since the 1990s. In 2006 fully 22,849 took some Greek (32,191 studied Latin). Applications for classics courses at top British universities are healthy too.

Logos and Theos

Christianity, rather than the glories of Athens and the horrors of Sparta, may be proving the biggest draw. Though some fundamentalists appear to believe that the Bible was written in English, for the more thoughtful (or pious) Christian, serious study of the New Testament or the early Christian church is impossible without first knowing alpha from omega. In America, Greek and Hebrew are standard parts of a Master of Divinity degree—necessary to become a minister in most respectable Protestant denominations. That does not match the now fast-reviving use of Latin in the Roman Catholic liturgy. But it helps. While the koine Greek current in the eastern Mediterranean in the 1st century AD is different from the Attic, Ionian or Homeric dialects used in the greatest works of classical literature, it is also considerably easier. (For the austere classicists of St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, a touch of koine is regarded as a “Christmas treat”.)

In practice, few classes bond quite as tightly as the six students featured in Donna Tartt’s bestselling novel “The Secret History” (in a pastiche of Euripides’s “Bacchae”, they commit and conceal two vicious murders). But such references highlight the subject as something exotic and therefore desirable, at least to those with time and brainpower to engage in it. The cryptic difficulties of Greek (alphabet, accents, moods, particles and tenses) repel Οί Πολλοί (hoi polloi) but attract devotees. Intellectual elitism, as much as an appreciation of Aristophanes’s bawdy humour, is the glue that binds Hellenists together—stoked, in some schools, by a feeling of official neglect or hostility from peers.

The real threat is not modernity, but globalisation. Europe’s glorious past is one of many: when those seeking to understand China start studying Confucius’s “Analects” with the same attention that past generations have paid to Pericles, the intricacies of the aorist optative may finally lose their charms. But not just yet.

“Romans” at Navenby

From the Grantham Journal

A ‘Roman’ legion returns to Navenby on Sunday as part of Navenby Archaeology Group’s Roman Day on the Open Space in the village.

There
will many side stalls, attractions and demonstrations, all with a Roman
or Romano British theme, including cooking, bee keeping, thatching,
weaving, pot making and many other period crafts.

The Legion will be showing their skills during the day with demonstrations of marching and war tactics.

There will also be a falconry display.

People
are encouraged to go as a Roman or Ancient Briton with prizes for the
best child’s or adult costume. Judging will be at noon.

10am to 5pm

Colchester Roman circus discussed in parliament

Speaking in the House of Commons during Culture Questions on Monday, Mr Russell said: “In November 2004, the most exciting archaeological discovery for decades occurred – the discovery of the only Roman chariot racing stadium in Britain.

“The setting of the Roman Circus is now threatened with residential development.

Read the rest (East Anglian Daily Times)

From Hansard:

T2.[212534] Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): In November 2004, the most exciting archaeological discovery for decades occurred: the discovery of the only Roman chariot-racing stadium in Britain. The setting of the Roman circus is now threatened with residential development. Will the relevant Minister come to Colchester with officials and representatives of English Heritage? This is a matter of national and international importance, and more than just a matter for a local authority to determine.

The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Margaret Hodge): I am always interested in issues of national importance. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman write to me with the details so that I can consider this matter properly. If it requires me to visit his constituency, of course I shall be happy to do so.

Thefts from Kent archaeology sites

Kent News

A train guard from Kent has been sentenced after pleading guilty to stealing Roman artefacts from archeologically important sites across the country.

Mark Staples, who lives in Swanley, was given a three-year conditional discharge for charges relating to theft and illegal excavations from a number of sites protected under the Archaeological Area and Ancient Monuments Act 1979.

He was sentenced at Dartford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning.

The 39-year-old targeted mainly sites and objects of Roman origin including a mosaic from Spoonley Roman Villa in Gloucestershire.

Artefacts were also stolen from excavations at Chilham in Kent and Chanctonbury in Sussex.
Chief Inspector Mark Harrison said: “As a rich archaeological resource, Kent has more archaeological heritage than anywhere else in the country and this man has ruined some areas of these sites of any future scientific evaluation.

“Anyone who has an interest in heritage or who wishes to discover artefacts should join a professional society or formal group.”
Staples was arrested after two illegal excavations at Thurnham Castle near Maidstone and Richborough Roman Fort at Sandwich.

Ch Insp Harrison added: “This case highlights the strong partnership that Kent Police has developed with English Heritage and Kent County Council which seeks to prevent this form of criminal behaviour and we will work to prosecute anyone caught with illegal finds.”

A total of 20 sites with 10 in Kent were visited by Staples and police warned anyone thinking of raiding the county’s rich historical sites that PC Andy Small was the first officer in the country specially trained to deal with heritage crimes.

He has now trained 40 people including special constables, KCC wardens, PCSOs and crown prosecutors in rural and environmental crime and a similar role was created by police in Wales based on his success.

Blink, and the Latin has gone.

It wasn’t the Latin that people objected to, but the fact that Obama used a presidential-looking image.

Still, it had only one outing.

Could ‘vero possumus’ be part of a Latin version of Bob the Builder?

Paperback edition of Ovid Love Poems

The OUP latest catalogue includes the paperback of A.D.Melville’s translation . Those teaching Amores may welcome this. David West welcomed the hardback edition warmly in The Times:

• Melville has worked a miracle … It is difficult to imaagine that there will ever be an English version so faithful to the Latin, and written in such sound and engaging verse.