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Category Archives: Latin

Something Is Happening.

01-Feb-15

transitorily A very nice article by Tony Grafton which testifies to the work of the Paideia Institute, a not-for-profit cultural institution inspired by Fr. Reginald Foster with a focus on linking a classical, humanistic education with the joy of being human.  I have spent much of my life with the people mentioned in the article, and […]

Cicero, Latin, Ted Cruz, & Google.

21-Nov-14

http://sjfiremuseum.org/wp-admin/style.php A friend posted on Facebook the following rant after the idiocy of Ted Cruz, who rather obviously never reads Cicero and is full of it, quoting the First Catilinarian against Obama: A friend posted this about Ted Cruz invoking the 1st Catilinarian: sponte sua mihi in mentem maledictio illa subit, quae apud Plautum legitur: ‘abi […]

Nancy Llewellyn’s Eulogy for David Morgan.

14-Feb-13

The eulogy for David Morgan delivered by Nancy Llewellyn at his funeral on Saturday. I met David in 1995 when we were both just getting started in the peculiar and often delightful academic microclimate that I have come to call the Latinosphere, that is, the global community of classical enthusiasts who cultivate Latin by speaking […]

In Paradisum David Morgan.

08-Feb-13

There is not much that can be done in the face of our certain mortality. Two nights ago I heard from friends that David Morgan, professor of French Literature at Furman University and for several years one of the teachers at Rusticatio Virginiana, lay on his deathbed and had probably only hours to live. I […]

Varro on Beyonce.

04-Feb-13

I’ve been reading Varro’s De Re Rustica in the midst of my daily labors (mostly cutting and carrying wood), and seeing new mother Beyonce looking rather fit at the Superbowl last night minded me of this passage: “Ut te audii dicere,” inquit, “cum in Liburniam venisses, te vidisse matres familias eorum affere ligna et simul pueros, […]

Farming and Classics.

01-Jan-13

There exists a memoir entitled Of Farming and Classics, which to judge from the title seemed like something I might find relevant.  I wrote a review of it for the University Bookman.

On the Constancy of Moral Behavior In Matters Human.

31-Jul-12

Cord Jefferson looks at some great Pompeian graffiti (where can we get the Latin for this, short of having a copy of the CIL in one’s study?) and comes to the (inescapable) conclusion that people are just as dumb, sex-obsessed, filthy-minded, and lowbrow as the worst television or rap music or brainless teenagers you can […]

The Appian Way, by Bob Kaster.

28-Jun-12

Robert Kaster’s The Appian Way, Ghost Road, Queen of Roads was my companion for a day here in the woods, in between spurts of gardening and writing. The book is short – 120 pages – and generally delightful.  It consists of some scattered historical anecdotes and observations coupled with a few bursts of travel writing. […]

Lucretius, Poggio, Greenblatt, Grafton.

03-May-12

A nice review, intelligently written as always, by Tony Grafton of Stephen Greenblatt’s book on the discovery of Lucretius by my favorite humanist Poggio Bracciolini.  Poggio struck me from the first time I encountered him in the form of his deeply sympathetic and humane letter describing the sadistic and dishonorable burning of Jerome of Prague […]

Latin-teaching Blogging.

29-Jan-12

Since I’m back in the classroom, I’m going to put up a few pieces about the nuts and bolts of Latin teaching, as I go through various topics through the school year.  “Write what you know.”