Afternoon at the Cloisters in NYC
I've been busy today touring the Cloisters museum in New York City, which is where a lot of the Metropolitan Museum's medieval collection lives. It's been a long time since I was [...]
New book: The Brothel of Pompeii
A barmaid brings a drink to two men sitting on chairs. The words show the men arguing about whose drink it is. (Caupona of Salvius, Pompeii, 79 AD) - this is [...]
Vercingetorix surrenders to Julius Caesar #otd
Nos ancêtres les Gaulois... On October 3rd, 52 BC, the leader of the Gaulish forces, Vercingetorix, surrendered to the Roman general Julius Caesar, and Gaul fell under the control of the Roman [...]
Saladin and Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem
Saladin frees his captives On October 2nd, 1187, the Ayyubid sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders after a long siege. Unlike the Crusaders, he didn't kill anybody, and instead freed most [...]
Alexander and Gaugamela #onthisday
On this day, October 1st, 331 BC, Alexander of Macedon won the battle of Gaugamela against the Persian king Darius and his army. That was pretty much the end of armed Persian [...]
Metaphors, paradigms, Classics, and Medieval Europe
I'm just feeling my way toward this at the moment, so please bear with me, but I feel like the public-facing articles I see fall into three categories which can usefully be [...]
William the Conqueror 1066
Well, I missed it yesterday, but September 28th was the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror and the Normans attacked England and conquered King Harold, and [...]
Impeachment and the Epic of Gilgamesh
Impeachment and the Late Republic I've been reading an awful lot of articles drawing parallels between the end of the Roman Republic and what's going on now with the House of Representatives [...]
“Genius” grant for Homer translator
I was so excited to see today that Emily Wilson got a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation! Congratulations, Professor Wilson! It's $625,000, distributed over five years, to do anything you want [...]
Rosh Hashanah (Sunday-Tuesday)
Shana Tova! Happy New Year! Sunday will (finally) be Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. If you're wondering why the Jewish new year doesn't line up with the calendar New Year, it's [...]
