I finished up "Pompeii: The New Dig" on PBS Passport ... enjoyable! I bought the DVD but it only has the first 3 episodes. The 4th looks like add-on, as it was released a year later. I wonder if it'll ever be on DVD. Seems unlikely, but one can hope. Donate and support PBS, if you're in the U.S!

"Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio." -Seneca, by way of Poe in "The Purloined Letter" "Nothing is more hateful to philosophy than excessive acumen." Acumen, a word lifted unchanged from Latin, probably could do with something more colloquial here. Shrewdness, sharpness, often cleverness.

I'm enjoying this! I even bought the DVD. I've been to Herculaneum. Someday I'll return to Italy to visit Pompeii.

In Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", the motto on the arms of The Montresors says, "Nemo me impune lacessit." That is, "Nobody provokes me without punishment." A creeping bit of foreshadowing if ever there was one.

For #RomanSiteSaturday, the remarkable Ponte Mallio, Cagli, #Italia, which carries the Via Flamina across the Bosso. Some obvious Augustan improvements to an older structure, but there are parts of the bridge that appear to predate even the Roman period. It's an extraordinary thing, and I adore it

I am both sad and disturbed to report that a cohors, evidently, murdered his entire family and burned down their house. If the allegations turn out to be true, damnatio memoriae. But for now... www.abqjournal.com/news/article...

I hit a bit of a milestone. Last Friday, I retired from the rat race. Next up, gentleman scholar. Or perhaps landscape painter. Or nude sculptor -- in the classy, artistic sense!!

Thanks, Apple. Thanks for suggesting "who're" and "white" for "whore."

@theb1m.bsky.social youtu.be/J4nW28DUeLs?...

“The moon doesn’t have its own light: its light comes from the sun!” CAPITVLVUM TERTIVM DECIMVUM [XIII] 🙏 #familiaromana #llpsi #learnlatin #latinsaveslives #latin #lingualatina

I read Roman Homosexuality by Craig Williams for my thesis. Actually met him once when I was a grad student. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roman-homo...

Slightly idiomatic and archaic English: "Fighting must be done by trickery when one is not equal in arms." More modern English: "You have to fight with deception when you have inferior weapons." Did you fall for any #AprilFools gags today? The water dispenser at work wouldn't give me water.

It's almost time for another trip to England!

Someday I hope to make it to Pompeii. Herculaneum was amazing for me. Next time, I'll spend more time and take more photos like this lovely one.

'Safety first' when sacking Rome.

Bye, bye, Santorini. I'm sorry I never took the time to visit. <satire alt="dear serious Classicist friends and colleagues: satire ahead">Also, maybe Atlantis really WAS Santorini, not Minos, or whatever. Thanks, Plato!</satire>

Steven Saylor wrote a bunch of books about ancient Romans. I voraciously read all the Gordianus the Finder books when they were new, before I got degrees in Classics. I haven't kept up since. Maybe it's time I revisited his books! I was reminded because I found some on a very dusty wish list!

See the Stunning Ancient Roman Statue of Athena That's Going on View for the First Time in Nearly 260 Years | Smithsonian www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/s...

On the left, my image. On the right, the Al image that was clearly trained on, and designed to plagiarize, my image. All Al generated imagery is inherently theft. It's unethical, environmentally disastrous, and does irreparable harm to both artists and society.

This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.

Pentheus, The Bacchae and Euripides are on my mind. I saw a fantastic rendition of it in grad school. Those Ancients knew a thing or two about the unquenchable thirst of human fallacy. There's that moment when the plutocrat realizes he is mortal and his mother realizes she tore apart her own son.

Love this #Roman game made from sandstone and glass found at the military fort at Vindolanda. It’s set up for a game of ‘little bandits’ where the aim is to surround your opponent’s pieces in one colour with yours in a different colour. #FindsFriday #Archaeology #Ancientbluesky 📷 my own

📢 EEEP!!! MYTHWRECKED is OUT NOW After *3 years* my next indie game (following Röki) is OUT NOW on Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch... 🏝️ Explore a secret island ⚡️ Meet the gods of legend 🔎 Uncover the truth, behind the myth

I still learn new things every day, even about Classical Rome, a subject in which I'm well versed. I did not know that olive oil leavings after pressing were useful. The Greeks and Romans used it as fuel, similar to charcoal in other places. Neat hypothesis! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jdt...

At this point it’s been said in a hundred different ways, so I think people are being intentional about not getting it.

As a Classicist and a film lover, I liked Gladiator II. It's a personal connection, I suppose. G1 did it for me, among other reasons, because of the echolalia of Lisa Gerard of Dead Can Dance [* I'm highly moved by soundtracks]. This time, Denzel did it for me. Great villain, fascinating motivation.

Lost Writings of Archimedes Revealed After Centuries by Particle Accelerator greekreporter.com/2024/11/28/l...

Grr! The hallucinating robo followers and/or disruptive fakes are starting to migrate to Bluesky, too. I blocked 3 this morning already. Please know that muting is a private action, blocking is public (according to Bluesky docs). #norobo #noshills

The sex and ancestry of five people who died in the eruption are revealed by genetic material embedded in the casts. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I made myself curious. I have an "M.A. in Comparative Literatures and Cultural Studies with Classical Languages Concentration" ... At least that's what the current official website says. I'll need to review what the dusty scroll hanging on the wall actually says ... lcl.unm.edu/languages/cl...

The List of Lists has been updated again - as always, let me know of any others to add! #ClassicsBluesky 🏺#AncientBluesky

Not sure if Bluesky has many people interested in classical content yet, but I wanted to note that the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae has a podcast with discussions of various Latin words: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... It hadn't been very active for a while, but there are several new episodes now.

I have to say that I like the UCD approach to students and GenAI, and I am stealing ‘CheatGTP’ I’m afraid I don’t have time to do alt text for all the words on the posters, but I’ll add the link to their webpage in a reply, and hope that they have accessible versions.

I'm still not 100% sure how a starter pack works, but to experiment I've created one for Digital Classicists –If you should be on it, let me know. If you shouldn't be on it, I'll remove you. –Convince me it's a bad idea, I'll delete the whole thing. A good idea, I can share it. go.bsky.app/3ZkX6k2

I've worked in (mostly) ethical tech for 28 years to pay the bills. One of my favorite pro bono projects is The Latin Lexicon, an online Latin Dictionary. latinlexicon.org