Ancient Roman elites competed intensely for status and income through the production of verbal works. One result was content focused on sex and violence. … Read the post Seneca’s Controversiae: effects of competition for attention
Most ancient Greek inscriptions, including most funerary epitaphs, are prosaic. Patrons seem to have written the inscriptions that they themselves wanted. … Read the post ancient Greek inscriptions: some early content economics
Nothing is more attractive than the grandeur that was Roman bureaucracy. Reading through the Roman Notitia Dignitatum will inspire any bureaucrat with longing to return to that spiritual home. In that holy land, the Master of Offices managed these organizations: the first school of shield-bearers, the second school of shield-bearers, the school of senior gentiles, … Continue reading COB-36: classical beauty
From Medea to modern media, bloody violence has been favored action. One must approach Medea and media with critical, humanistic understanding. … Read the post Understanding Medea through ancient Greek epigrams
Only societal catastrophe in Jerusalem would raise the value of ordinary men in the eyes of elite, highly privileged women. … Read the post raising ordinary men's social value in ancient Jerusalem
The Alexander Mosaic, as well as other later artistic and experimental evidence, shows that the visual conventions of writing affect art. The Alexander Mosaic was found in a house buried in Pompeii in 79 GC when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The mosaic is probably a copy of a painting that Philoxenos of Eretria made about 310 … Continue reading art and letters
Ancient Greek Locrian law declared that anyone proposing a new law do so with a noose around his neck. If the law didn’t pass, he would be hung. … Read the post Locrian law: some peculiar legal institutions
A great way to study the ancient Greek trireme is to build and row one. Here’s a first-hand account of first sea trials of the trireme Olympias. … Read the post science in action: the trireme Olympias