Classical Studies

At the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

"Women on the Edge," a lecture by Mary T. Boatwright  Mary T. Boatwright, a professor at Duke University, and author of Hadrian and the City of Rome, will give a lecture here at UNC-Wilmington on Wednesday, Dec. 1, at 7:30 PM, at Bryan Auditorium in Morton Hall.  Using grave stele from Pannonia (modern Hungary), which show the deceased women in native dress (men are always depicted in Roman costume, mostly military), she will explore distinctions of race, ethnicity and gender, and the questions these bring up about frontiers and interactions on frontiers.

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Saturnalia December 17th is Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival dedicated to realxation, good times, reversal of roles, and gift-giving.  For more information (and suggestions on how to celebrate this year's Saturnalia, ideally timed just after the conclusion of final exams), check out this web site.

Stolen Antiquities found in Florida: Art stolen from Corinth (an American-run excavation, where I actually worked briefly many years ago) 9 years ago, found in Florida . . . How did it get there? Read about it in Fox news . . .

Major Earthquake hits Athenian Acropolis: While the Parthenon escaped unscathed, there was significant damage to antiquities in the National Museum. Archeologists now have to work to reconstruct what was destroyed . . .

A man of silence breathes life into Latin: A story about Reginald Foster, who teaches workshops on spoken Latin. I’ve heard great things about them and someday I want to take one myself – I’ll just have to get to Rome to do it!

In the Valley of the Mummies: A great article (with references to related articles) about recent discoveries in Roman Egypt. Excellent pictures. (You have to register to use the New York Times news site, but you might as well, it’s no trouble. If you’re using a computer cluster computer, don’t have it save your password though.)

Sept. 23: Augustus' birthday:   Do you need an excuse to celebrate?  If so, you have one now.  It's the birthday of Augustus, Rome's first emperor, possibly the greatest spin doctor in Western history.  While his uncle and adopted father, Julius Caesar, got assassinated for his imperial aspirations, Augustus mahanged to have a long, happy life as emperor and be considered a generally nice guy as well.  Wish I knew how he did it!

Latin rules! You thought Latin was a dead language? Read here about the new popularity of Latin:

Nero’s Palace: When a large section of Rome burned to the ground just where the emperor Nero wanted to build his dream palace, suspicions were raised, leading to the comment that "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." Well, maybe he fiddled and maybe he didn’t, and maybe he arranged the fire and maybe he didn’t, but the palace he built on the smoking ruins was truly spectacular. Not much remains now, but archeological excavations have revealed some of the ancient splendor, and the palace site is now open to the public. Read about it at:

A Virtual Tour of Rome:  Go here and see what Rome would have looked like to a visitor arriving by sea. (For virtual tours of other ancient cities, check out ancientsites in "Just for Fun.")

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