New at LacusCurtius and Livius.Org

[Bill Thayer]

Yawelcome Kate, (I'd actually gone back to your previous comment before posting the 'new' Sallust item!) The rest of the Loeb volume of Sallust will be going up too — the more connected fragments of the Histories — but as usual, don't hold your breath. You wouldna believe the amount of stuff I've almost completed, which in theory comes first, ha-ha; including some actual Roman military stuff too.

B

[Paullus Scipio]

Bill, let me say that while you may feel unrecognised, I have nothing but admiration for the Herculean effort you've made...which I reguarly consult, though I haven't quite read everything on the site yet, I 've read or referred to most of it...even liifting sections of text to illustrate a point in debates here on RAT ! :wink: :wink: ( It saves on my 'two finger pecker' typing skills! )

Your efforts have created an outstanding and valued resource...may the Gods continue to smile on your work...Laudes !! D 8)

[Bill Thayer]

Thank you Paul, and I hope you've read the Australian history I have onsite: an odd little item, but Australian history nonetheless.

B

[Paullus Scipio]

No, I hadn't Bill, so thank you for pointing it out ! All historical first-hand accounts are fascinating nad this one is full of interesting information, if somewhat insular!
The Gold Rush period of Australia's history was actually on a par with the California Gold Rush in many respects, and put a remote British colony onto World Maps.

[Jona Lendering]

I have put online Synesius' long speech On Imperial Rule. The first half is quite boring: Synesius presents himself as a philosopher who will offer the emperor (Arcadius) honest advise. In the second half, he presents several recommendations, including the suggestion to dismiss the Germanic troops. In 400, after the revolt of Gainas, this was probably not a very original advise, but still, it is a real recommendation, which is more than can be said about similar addresses to emperors, which are usually very topical.

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks Jona!

Maybe it was not an original advice, but it was never followed - Germanic and even Gothic troops continued to be part of the regular army...

[Jona Lendering]

Maybe it was not an original advice, but it was never followed - Germanic and even Gothic troops continued to be part of the regular army...

Maybe this advise was simply a bad one because it had become impossible to organize a large army without Germannic warriors, which may have been cheaper. I do not know. What I do know, however, is that those Germans were not necessarily unreliable.

Meanwhile, Bill has added Bootes (and several other constellations that were not known to the ancients) to Allen's Star Names.

[Bill Thayer]

And for those who don't speak French, an English translation of the article Calcar in Daremberg & Saglio — spurs; with its 7 woodcuts.

B

[Jona Lendering]

Two grand ladies have found their place on my website: Pericles' mistress Aspasia and Augustus' sister Octavia. To be honest, the latter is not very interesting, but -hey!- the photo is lovely.

Continuing with Allen's Star Names, Bill added Cetus (the Sea Monster that attacked Andromeda).

[Bill Thayer]

Also Cepheus, about whom there's a bit of a mystery, not clearly addressed by Allen: was he an African king, or not? It is very tempting (and not, modernists will excuse me — or not — on the oily grounds of "multiculturalism" and other cant-words of our Zeitgeist) to see in that constellation one more link among many between the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Africa. Allen's quick gallop thru the matter brings up the whole business of the two Aethiopias, on either side of Arabia; for which there seems to be some evidence.

In re Aspasia, Jona: her career, so to speak, got better by far in the Middle Ages as we know (as did Alexander's and Alcibiades') — might you consider a second page on that? It would be a very interesting one, I think, and you're the guy to write it.
   A very quick poke around Elfinspell, a quirky but very rich repository of medieval and Renaissance stuff, turns up the statement by the way that "she is said to have studied under Gorgias of Leontini". Any idea what the source of that 19c statement is? If true, might she not have had something to do with coaching Pericles after all, without that being demeaning?
   There's also another passage in Elfinspell about Aspasia reconciling Xenophon and his wife, which sounds plausible enough.... Like I said, disentangling fact and medieval embroidery might be instructive and entertaining.

B

[Jona Lendering]

Bill made available a new article on the Birthplace of Plautus in the Antiquaries' Shoebox. He also published some stuff by the Graeco-Roman sophist/philosopher Dio of Prusa (a.k.a. Dio Chrysostom, 'mouth of gold'): Discourse 7 (great fun: contains a rare description of daily life of ancient hunters who never visited the cities), Discourse 27 (what takes place during a symposium), Discourse 63 (On fortune), Discourse 67 (On popular opinion), and Discourse 74 (On distrust). I will soon add an introduction to this Dio, plus a speech by Synesius that tackles the question whether he ought to be called a philosopher or a sophist.

And continuing with Allen's Star Names, Bill added Lepus (the hare).

[Jona Lendering]

As promised, I wrote an article on Dio Chrysostom. Bill did something similar: he put online the Introduction to the Loeb Translation of the Works of Dio. Some of you may like my new weblog.

[Robert Vermaat]

Some of you may like my new weblog.

Nice! I got one too (but nothing there as yet). :wink:

[Bill Thayer]

Jona's piece is far better and more relevant than the Loeb Introduction.

A very minor comment, mind you. Oratio 7 can only be said to "conclude" that the poor can live a good life, in the logical meaning of "conclude", to arrive by deduction at something felt to be true; in the temporal and literary-criticism meaning of conclude, to end, Oratio 7 concludes with a diatribe against pederasty; the final sentence makes things quite clear: guys who go after boys are like people who eat potato chips and dips at cocktail parties. Doubtless some do both.

[Jona Lendering]

A very little update to my article on the Gheriat el-Garbia limes fort. Robert Vermaat (of Fectio) has made a lovely panorama - thanks Robert!

The full photo can be found here.

On my blog, some thoughts about Christianity, modern science, Gnosis, and scholarship.