Musings on Daily Life in the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean By Sarah E. Bond
I miss Milwaukee sometimes. On warmer nights, I used to run along Lake Michigan and wait for the sunset, before jogging home to work on the book. One of the best things about those runs was looking at sculpture against the backdrop of the Wisconsin sunset. What always caught my eye was a piece by Catalan artist Jaume... Continue Reading →
At the Australian Open in 2008, tennis player Andy Roddick famously unleashed a tirade against court umpire Emmanuel Joseph, telling the crowd at one point: "Stay in school kids or you’ll end up being an umpire!" During the MLB playoffs this week, there were similarly slanderous remarks against the umpires uttered either directly to them, or muttered under the... Continue Reading →
Doorways and thresholds were an important locus of power in Greco-Roman antiquity--but we might also think of them as an epigraphic opportunity. Inscriptions often preceded ancient doorways, just as tabulae (inscribed tablets) could demarcate the sacred boundaries of temples. Writing was and is a means of delineating and mapping space. Additionally, certain words could serve to set the tone for guests entering a household,... Continue Reading →
Join us online at 10 am - 11:30 am (ET) on Friday, May 29th for a webinar broadcast from the Center for Hellenic Studies to discuss how to use the geospatial data housed in Pleiades.Stoa.org to enrich your classroom and your research. We will explore the site itself, but will also illustrate how one might make maps (for teaching or for... Continue Reading →
☩ μὴ θεόμαχος νήων. ☩ ☩ ἀσβολόθη ὁ ῥονχάζων. ☩ Let the snorter / be covered in soot! [MAMA X, 330=PH 269278] Games of chance are never a silent endeavor; however, Romans found it rather uncouth to snort when Fortune was not on your side. A civil person kept their nose silent. There is a strong auditory... Continue Reading →
One of the tough things about reconstructing epigraphic landscapes, is that so much of it is now gone. Whether it be graffiti, painted inscriptions, or just waxen etchings, most of the inscriptions that populated the ancient world are now lost. Today I want to explore just a bit of this ephemeral epigraphic landscape, and hopefully... Continue Reading →
The Transformation of Poverty, Philanthropy, and Healthcare in Late AntiquityThe Society for Late Antiquity announces that the eleventh biennial Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity conference will take place at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, March 26-29, 2015. The period of Late Antiquity (A.D. 200-700) witnessed great changes in respect to attitudes towards poverty,... Continue Reading →
History From Below 