tanta vis admonitionis inest in locis; ut non sine causa ex iis memoriae ducta sit disciplina. “Places have so great a power of suggestion that the technical art of memory is with good reason based upon them.” — Cicero, De Finibus, 5.2. "The 'living wolf' inside her enclosure on the Campidogli[o] from (above) L’Illustrazione Italiana no. 49 December... Continue Reading →
Teaching Gladiators, Slavery, and the Lure of the Arena
My latest for Hyperallergic looks at the new, alleged gladiator cemetery found near the amphitheater in the town of Anazarbus. I have written on gladiators quite a bit over the years, since my PhD research focused so heavily on the legal stigma of infamia. Gladiators were one of many professions who endured this infamy in... Continue Reading →
Pretty as a Pictor: Painters in the Roman Mediterranean
Σαβεῖνοςζωγράφος ἐτῶνκϛʹ.εὐψύχως Sabinus, a painter, 26 years old, good luck! Fayoum 1:40=PHI 215881, Aueris (Hawāra) — Rom. Imp. period — SB 1.682. On a red marble epitaph from Hawara now in the Cairo Museum is the commemoration of a young painter living in Roman Egypt named Sabinus. We have a number of epitaphs and mentions... Continue Reading →
On Auctoritas and Antiquity
Post id tempus auctoritate omnibus praestiti, potestatis autem nihilo amplius habui quam ceteri qui mihi quoque in magistratu conlegae fuerunt. After that time, I exceeded all persons in auctoritas; however, I had no greater potestas than the others who were colleagues with me in each magistracy. Res Gestae 34.10-12. In his Res Gestae, Augustus noted that after... Continue Reading →
Introducing Pasts Imperfect: New Spaces for Public Scholarship
Theseus escapes King Minos’ labyrinth on Crete (it is a metaphor), opus vermiculatum mosaic, Roman, 200-250 CE, Carthage (Image taken by Sarah E. Bond at the Penn Museum; CC0). Pasts Imperfect is a weekly newsletter amplifying and supporting public writing focused on a global antiquity. Subscribe here: https://pastsimperfect.substack.com/ For our first newsletter, we wanted to signal boost... Continue Reading →
Curious about the Beginning and End of the Olympics?
By Sarah E. Bond and Joel Christensen This post is cross-posted with Sententiae Antiquae. The 2020 Olympics, postponed because of COVID19, are due to start this week in Japan. They might be cancelled again, but the athletes have been training hard and Sarah E. Bond and I talked about the beginning, the end, and the tender parts... Continue Reading →
Following the Stylus Manual: Roman everyday writing equipment
‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ (trans. Tomlin 2019)
Nefertiti and Digital Colonialism: A Short Bibliography
I am not an Egyptologist. My specialities are digital humanities, epigraphy, and the laws of the late Roman Empire. The beauty of academia and of journalism is that far more brilliant people than you can allow exploration of intellectual terrain through their research, writing, and excavation. This is certainly the case for my new article... Continue Reading →
A Red Letter Way: Color, Writing, and Reading in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Within most medieval books of hours, there were ecclesiastical calendars that had important holy days printed in red. This was a type of textual highlighting used to call attention to important festivals; a visual language that had long indicated significant textual features, paragraph organization, and wordplay (e.g. acrostics). The Latin word for red ochre and red coloring in general was rubrīca. As such, making a text red is called "rubrication" and influenced the original use for the word "rubric." The practice of coloring significant dates in red is perhaps best known through the English idiom of a "red letter day."
At the Copa: Women, Clothing, and Color Codes in Roman Taverns
Fresco from the Bar of Salvius, Pompeii. In it, a bar maid holds a jug in one hand and a cup in another. One customer shouts “over here!”while another says “no, it’s mine!” The exasperated barmaid replies “whoever wants it should take it. Oceanus come here and drink”. (Caption and Image by Dr. Sophie Hay... Continue Reading →