New at LacusCurtius and Livius.Org

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

off-topic: Jona, i saw you on TV last sunday!
You were on the show "Boeken" of the VPRO. I noticed that you were a bit nervous but i liked it. Were you happy with it?

[Robert Vermaat]

I missed it! Any idea if it will be repeated?

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

you can view it again at their site:

boeken.vpro.nl/

right side, under televisie.

[Jona Lendering]

Yes I was a bit nervous. It was not the first time I was on TV, but I discovered during the half-hour interview that it was meant to be in one take, and that there were no possibilities to cut out stupid moments. Nobody had told me, because the expected me to have seen the show before. But I have no TV, so that was quite a misunderstanding. Anyway, I was not unhappy with the result and everybody says that my remark that I was nervous was pretty charming. So I guess it's OK.

[Jona Lendering]

OK folks, here's a whole bunch of new links. On my own website a moderately interesting article on a Roman village (four fortified farms) in Libya called Suq al-Awty, which is almost the last of my pieces of the Limes Tripolitanus (read more about the Limes to know the context of Suq al-Awty).

In the meantime, Bill has been busy with a whole series of articles of his web edition of Smith' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: consularis (former consul); cubitus (cubit); oscillum (2c2e); patera (saucer); patina (bowl); pedum (shepherd's crook); pegma (parade floats); pelta (light shield); pentathlon (parade floats); perduellionis IIviri; periscelsis (no one knows); pes (foot); petaurum (a game); praedium (an expression from Roman law); salinum (salt-cellar; I did not know these existed); scalptura (seal or engraving).

[Jona Lendering]

Here's my Xmas present to you RATs: photos from Ghirza.

Forget Sabratha, Leptis Magna, Cyrene: it's Ghirza you want to visit. It's way out in a stony desert, it is hot, there is a lot of dust, and you look like a clown when you have dressed to protect yourself against the sun, but the trip is worth every second.

In the first place, Ghirza itself is interesting: a romanized Libyan town along the Limes Tripolitanus with two splendid cementeries. Sculpture is not extremely fine -on the contrary- but the artist creates more realism than classical sculptors. You can see a hunt for a lion in which one of the hunters gets killed and is devoured by a hyena. There are also representations of agricultural activities, and you wonder how it was possible to farm this arid land - but yes, it was possible.

In the second place: driving 120 km/hour through the desert is exciting!

I am enthusiastic about all this, and almost forget to mention that Bill has put online a piece on possessio.

[Jona Lendering]

Bill has added articles on labyrinths and the Roman villa to his web edition of Smith' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. He is probably more fond of his other contribution, which I mention in spite of the fact that his pages on Umbria are on RAT a bit off-topic: a piece on a town called Ponze di Trevi and its church.

And I'm off to Paris, so you can expect perhaps something on Les trésors retrouvés d' Afghanistan, Les Perses Sassanides, Fastes d'un empire oublié, or l'Or des Thraces.

[Bill Thayer]

Would you believe I prefer the splendid mausoleums of Ghirza to the little hamlet of Ponze?

There is not the slightest trace (that I could see) of anything Roman in Ponze; not so with some of the other tiny villages and churches in the immediate area — so keep looking, Jona. . . .

[Jona Lendering]

Bill has put online a lot of articles to his web edition of Smith' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: Aegis (untranslatable); arma (panoply); bona (goods, property); crater; crypta (crypt); pecten (comb); per condictionem (Roman law expression); per pignoris capionem (also an expression from Roman law); pinacotheca (guess what); pluteus (2c2e); Sthenia (a festival from Argos).

New pages in Bill's Gazetteer of Umbria: Cantalupo; Castello di Sala; and Pian d'Arca.

[Bill Thayer]

Welcome back; so now tell us about Paris, Jona.

BT

[Robert Vermaat]

Welcome back; so now tell us about Paris, Jona.

Hi Bill - he already posted that yesterday!
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=13166

[Jona Lendering]

Bill is working hard these days. Here are some additons to his web edition of Smith' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: Aganothetae (arbiters), donatio (gift), gymnasium (guess what), libella (a coin), universitas ("unit" in Roman law).

For a big load of Umbrian stuff, the best on his website but off-topic, his main page (ten pages this week).

And on my website, three pages on Cappadocia, to be expanded soon with fact sheets on its Hellenistic rulers (nine of them, all called Ariarathes :evil: ).

And -although a bit late- I wish y'all a happy and healthy 2007.

[Jona Lendering]

I've put online a brief note on the date of Cyrus' conquest of Lydia. It is usually dated to 547, and has important chronological consequences for the history of Greece, but this is certainly incorrect.

Bill continues his series on Umbria.

[Jona Lendering]

Here is an online version of the Biblical book of Jonah. Don't forget to take a look at the sarcophagus.

[Jona Lendering]

A little piece on Alexander IV, the son of the great Alexander. Not really important, but I needed a little article to test the temporary solution to my hosting problems. Several links do not work.