‘Pie Zeses’: Toasting To A New Year

Another year of blogging is almost in the proverbial books and I must say that while 2016 was a wretched year socio-politically, it was professionally quite satisfying. My first book, Trade and Taboo was published and I even began writing for Forbes regularly. There is no doubt that I have much to be thankful for as... Continue Reading →

Tattoo Taboo? Exploring The History Of Religious Ink And Facial Tattoos

Over on my Forbes blog, I explore the history of religious tattoos. This post stems from my interest in the use of various stigmas--legal, social, and even corporal--against marginalized individuals. Tattoos in Greco-Roman antiquity were often linked to servility, but could also advertise one's religious convictions. I spoke with tattoo historian Anna Felicity Friedman about pilgrimage tattoos in... Continue Reading →

Times New Roman: Classical Inscriptions, Epigraphy Hunters, and Renaissance Fonts

The Renaissance (ca. 1330-1600) is often remembered for its revival of Classical literature. Modern books like The Swerve celebrate the Renaissance era book hunters such as Poggio Bracciolini, who travelled to hidden monasteries in search of Latin manuscripts of Virgil or Cicero, and uncovered lost works, such as Lucretius' De rerum natura. However, the Renaissance was also a time for rediscovering Latin and Greek... Continue Reading →

Amo, Amas, Amat: Greco-Roman School Exercises

The first line of Euripides' Bacchae reads: 'ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα' I, the child of Zeus, have come to the land of the Thebans Although it was written by the playwright at the end of the 5th c. BCE, while in Macedonia, the words of Euripides continued to echo in schoolrooms throughout the Mediterranean.... Continue Reading →

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