So griefs and various disasters shall grip them, as they mourn their destiny of no return, the requital for my ill-wedded violation. Not even those who jouyfully arrive home at last will light votive flames of sacrifice, paying thanks to Kerdylas, the Larynthian. [Zeus] (lines 1087-1092) The glory of the race of my grandfathers will be […]
Tag: Ancient Rome
Just when I think reality can’t get any weirder, I find out it already did. Thanks (I think) to DangerousMinds.net for their article The Oddly Inappropriate Spec TV Commercial for Never-Produced Caligula Action Figures. I’ve seen a lot of strange things, and I’m happy to say the 1980 movie Caligula directed by Penthouse owner/editor Bob […]
Brutus: The Noble Conspirator by Kathryn TempestYale University Press, 2017 To a considerable extent this book will examine how Brutus’ life has been recorded and transmitted from antiquity to today: a central contention is that, to appreciate Brutus the man, we must really probe the sources we use, to understand who is speaking and shy. […]
A few years ago, the boys and I read Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth, a historical fiction book that looks at the “disappearance” of the Roman Ninth Legion (Legio IX Hispana) from Britain in the second century AD. While we enjoyed the book (and the 2011 movie version, The Eagle), we also looked […]
I posted about this earlier this year, but I’m excited to say that The Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works is now available and it is beautiful. While Robert Stassler is still the series editor, Kurt A. Raaflaub did the translation and editing. If you’re not familiar with the series, it presents classical historical works […]
Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet by Daisy DunnHarper, 2016Hardcover, 336 pages An attempt to get back in the swing of posting… Catullus’ Bedspread by Daisy Dunn, released to coincide with her translation titled The Poems of Catullus (also from Harper) looks at the life and work of the poet commonly known […]
Netflix’s series Roman Empire: Reign of Blood follows the recent docu-series movement, mixing historians, narration, and drama over multiple episodes. It also continue the trend moving from sword-and-sandal epics to blood-and-boobs entertainment (to paraphrase a line from Adrian Goldsworthy). The story starts with the end of the emperor Marcus Aurelius’ reign and focuses on his […]