This is one of the things (apart from breakfast!?) which gets me out of bed in the morning at the moment! An on-going project is a digital edition of Book 4 of the Argonautica of the 3rd century Greek poet, Apollonius Rhodius. There's a test site for it over on the left side of this page. Comments, collaborators, contributions and corrections would be equally welcome. I will probably be a lot older when it's finally finished but quests never really end.
More about Digital Classics in future posts but these sites in particular: dcc.dickinson.edu and bridge.haverford.edu have been a constant source of inspiration so far and deserve the widest support among all Classicists. Peter Hulse Ridiculus praeses, qui per suffragia caeca
Effusa populos credulitate movet, Securasque domos invadit, verbere iuris In rectos saevit, contra alienigenos Semper agit, leges foedans. Resiste tyranno Terribilique aliis inmemorique sui! I didn't write it (o me miserum!). Here's an explanation and a translation. Peter Hulse We finished last year with a very entertaining talk by Emma Stafford on Neo-Classical architecture in the North of England. One place that she made much of was Todmorden. If you keep watching here you will catch sight of it's very fine Neo-Classical Town Hall. Classical symbolism was alive and well in 19th century Yorkshire! On a totally different tack but also entertainingly instructional: why not start the new year off with this? The author definitely has academic credentials as also does his main character: Marcus Clodius Ballista (!). As regards the action, the publisher's blurb says it all:
The year is AD 255 – the Roman Imperium is stretched to breaking point, its authority and might challenged along every border. The greatest threat lies in Persia to the east, where the massing forces of the Sassanid Empire loom with fiery menace. There the isolated Roman citadel of Arete awaits inevitable invasion. One man is sent to marshal the defences and shore up crumbling walls. A man whose name itself means war: a man called Ballista. Alone, Ballista is called to muster the forces and the courage to stand first and to stand hard against the greatest enemy ever to confront the Imperium. This is part one of Warrior of Rome: an epic of empire, of heroes, of treachery, of courage, and most of all, a story of brutal bloody warfare' The present reviewer is in the process of devouring the sequence. The action sequences are absolutely splendid. Our hero is definitely 'on a journey around the later Roman Empire' There are lots of bits of Latin (translated) and even . . . footnotes! What a start to the new academic year! Peter Hulse Thursday 18 May 2017
7 for 7:30pm, Humanities Research Institute Co-sponsored with the Sheffield branch of the Historical Association Emma Stafford (Leeds) Classical allegory in the Victorian-Edwardian north of England: Sheffield has a number of Classically-inspired buildings, and this is one of my favourites. It is the Unitarian Upper Chapel on Norfolk Street, near the Crucible Theatre (another design inspired by the buildings of the ancient world). The chapel dates from 1847-8, and stands on the site of a much older house. Its present appearance is the work of John Frith, who based it on the Travellers’ Club in London. These are some of its features: · The roof has the unmistakable low triangular shape of the pediment of the Parthenon in Athens. It does not, however, boast the sculptures for which that temple is famous: there is only blank brickwork. You can see the little “guttae” like small cubes lining the edges of the pediment. · The upper-storey windows have a round arch shape, which isn’t found in Greek architecture as they hadn’t yet discovered how to build them! They are flanked, though, by Corinthian pilasters. A pilaster is a column shape – usually half the diameter of the whole column – attached to a wall rather than free-standing. · The front door is sheltered by an imposing porch. This has four Ionic columns with a frieze above which bears only the name of the chapel. It’s not uncommon to find two or more orders of architecture in the same building: the Parthenon itself has Doric columns as its peristyle (outer edge) and Ionic columns inside. A walk round Sheffield city centre will reveal many more Classical buildings – especially if you look up above the shop fronts! |
Sheffield branch of the Classical Association, founded in 1920
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