IRIS

Fresh on the heels of the (somewhat dubious) attempt to fix the date of Odysseus’ return to Ithaca using astronomical information, comes this. Using details from Caesar’s Commentary and taking advantage of a fortuitous confluence of celestial events, scholars claim the traditional date of Caesar’s invasion of England should be slightly revised. The BBC reports:

Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain in 55BC could not have occurred on the dates stated in most history books, a team of astronomers have claimed. The traditional view is that Caesar landed in Britain on 26-27 August, but researchers from Texas State University say this cannot be right. Dr Donald Olson, an expert on tides, says that the English Channel was flowing the wrong way on this date. They instead favour an invasion of the south coast at Deal on August 22-23. [Read more…]

After a second inconclusive invasion the following year, Caesar was forced to turn his attention to Gaul, where unrest with Roman military occupation was growing. Augustus contemplated several invasions of Britain, but it only became a Roman province after Claudius’ invasion in 43CE.

Sarah Derbew ‘09 sends in another installment of her Study Abroad Journal:

Greetings again from Rome,
Another month, another great field trip. Two weeks ago, we went down to
southern Italy for a week, visiting sites and museums. The food was
amazing again, at Villa Vergiliana in Cumae (where we stayed for a few
nights), we had a lunch fit for a queen. It started with a wonderful
tomato pizza, followed by “easter cake” (bread rolled up with pork and
cheese), fresh tomatoes with olive oil and basil, fried zucchini, and
fruit. I have never been so content after a meal before.

We visited the Archeological museum in Naples and saw many fine pieces of
art and tasted some great CHEAP pizza as well. We had a great “Franco
surprise” (our director, Franco, plans these fun surprises during our
trip) and visited Volcano Sulfatara in the Campania region. I had never
been in an active volcano before and although it had a very…unique smell,
it was definitely worth it!

We also headed to Pompeii, a city in southern Italy that was thriving
until the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. I was impressed with our
group, I think the staff at the site might have been too, because we were
there as the gates opened in the morning and were the last ones to leave
in the evening. It was amazing how well the houses and bath complexes
were preserved from the ash of the eruption.

After we returned from Campania, we got back into the swing of things in
Rome with more field trips. We visited Tivoli last week and saw the villa
of Emperor Hadrian which was gorgeous. The two areas that stuck out to me
were Piazza D’oro (Piazza of Gold), an elegant peristyle court with floors
paved in yellow mosaics, and the canopus, a long lake surrounded by
columns.

The semester is almost done and we have only a week until finals begin.
Hopefully the sun will keep coming out and the gelato place nearby will
continue having wonderful flavors.

That’s all for now,
Sarah

Sarah Derbew ‘09 sends in another installment of her Study Abroad Journal:

In the middle of March, we had a week-long field trip to Sicily. It began early Friday morning with a 7 o’clock roll call on our field trip bus (a huge beautiful charter bus). We drove from Rome down to southern Italy, then crossed the boot and visited various parts of Sicily. Finally, we took a ferry from Palermo to Naples and drove back up to Rome.

One of my favorite cities was Taormina, in northeast Sicily, where we saw ancient Greek temples.

The city was very laid-back and also had a beautiful theater that was converted from a Greek to a Roman theater. It was the second largest theater in Sicily and supposedly had perfect acoustics. Even though a few friends and I got lost in this city, I didn’t mind wandering a little bit trying to find the group and enjoying the atmosphere of the city.

We also went to Agrigentum and Selinus, then north to Palermo. I really enjoyed Palermo as well. It had a cosmopolitan feel that reminded me of NY and it was really nice to walk around that city and see the opera hall and a GREAT pastry shop that sold the best cannolo I have ever had.

We visited ancient sites throughout Sicily during this trip, mostly ancient cities colonized by Greeks and eventually abandoned. The architecture and organization of these monuments was amazing. Every evening, we stayed in different hotels with four or five course dinners.
Our director chose our menus, making sure to include local meals; Sicilian cannoli are far superior to any other dessert I’ve ever tasted.

The trip was very structured though with early morning starts and late dinners so I am glad to be back in Rome and have a bit of a more relaxed pace. We have another week long field trip in a few weeks to southern Italy so I have time to wind down until then.

Every Monday, the LiveScience website publishes an article on a discovery, event, or character that influenced the course of history. This week’s note is “How the Eruption of Thera [modern Santorini] Changed the World”:

The world map might look differently had the Greek volcano Thera not erupted 3,500 years ago in what geologists believe was the single-most powerful explosive event ever witnessed.

Thera didn’t just blow a massive hole into the island of Santorini – it set the entire ancient Mediterranean onto a different course, like a train that switched tracks to head off in a brand new direction.

Minoan culture, the dominant civilization in the Mediterranean at the time, crumbled as a result of the eruption, historians believe, changing the political landscape of the ancient world indefinitely. Environmental effects were felt across the globe, as far away as China and perhaps even North America and Antarctica. [more…]

The growing interest in anthropogenic global warming (oops?) has brought some much needed attention to the influence of climate on culture and history. The effect of climate on societies–especially preindustrial, agricultural societies–would seem to be blindingly obvious, but too often we forget that even slight changes in weather and climate can profoundly influence the course of events. Don’t believe me? Ask Kublai Khan and Monsieur Napoleon.

The Sixth Edition of Vox Romana, is a free bi-monthly podcast about all things Roman. In this edition:

1. Introduction (Hortensia) | 2. Classical News (Hortensia) | 3. The Roman Calendar part 1 (Saturninus) | 4. Plinian Rough Mix (Meredith Bragg) | 5. Aeneid (Anna) | 6. Sign off (Hortensia)

The BBC has a nifty slide show documenting the very cool hi-tech cleaning of the Parthenon Marbles in Athens, which has removed decades of pollution.

Since the damage to the Athenian reliefs turned out to be less severe than previously thought, the cleaning has fueled the debate over whether the rest of the marbles, (in)famously known as the “Elgin Marbles” and on display in the British Museum, should be repatriated to Athens and installed in the New Acropolis Museum.

Sarah writes…

I’m finally able to refer to the mental map of Rome in my head, it’s really exciting to have free time and be able to go around the city, just me, my water bottle, bus pass, and copy of my passport (safety first). I went to the Victor Emmanuel monument at Piazza Venezia awhile ago, what an amazing view. The intersection between ancient and modern Rome is striking from there, with a view of the ancient Roman Forum and modern Via del Corso (a street with great shopping opportunities).
[Read more →]

From Tri-Co News and Notes comes an update about a piece of Haverford’s Classical past:

Whitney Ale, teaching assistant for Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil, spent the tail end of fall semester restoring a 150-year old plaster- cast bust of the goddess Diana that once sat atop the shelves of the old Haverford Library. As reported in a previous blog posting, busts of Diana and Aristotle were recently identified and discovered on campus.

[Read more…]

According to a new poll, it seems Britons are busy turning their storied history into myth and legend (via AFP):

LONDON (AFP) - Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real. The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.
And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. [Read the rest of the story…]

I’m a bit skeptical of the findings, since such polls are susceptible to mischievous pranksters (”sure I believe in Snow White” *snicker snicker*). Nevertheless, the story remind us how we tend to mythologize stories and figures about which we have imprecise knowledge.

Herodotus and Robert Strassler’s new Landmark Herodotus took center stage yesterday on NPR’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” (program available in archive). No word on whether that inveterate Herodotus-hater Plutarch, author of “On the Malice of Herodotus”, was available for comment.