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Ancient scrolls: where are the wooden handles?
We all know what an ancient scroll should look like. Most of us haven’t actually seen a scroll from the first century AD, but we know what they look like in movies and stage productions. They should look something like a rolled up cylinder of paper with attractive wooden knobs poking out at either end.…
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Ancient Atheism
We take atheism for granted today; the ancients took theism for granted. Of course, that’s a sweeping generalisation. But the first part holds true for most university students today, and it has often led students to assume that the greatest ancient philosophers, politicians and authors were atheists at heart too. That is, until they find…
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A word in Latin
fritillus, -ī m dice box. Example sentence: Marcus shook the dice box again. “Argh!” he said. “The lowest roll possible!” Marcus iterum fritillum iecit. “Heu!” inquit. “Canis!”
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Bird feeds chicks her own blood
So I was flicking over a manuscript in a digital collection, and saw a scene of Adam and Eve in Paradise. I looked up and saw birds in the trees. And I thought, that’s beautiful. I love birds. But then I saw blood…
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A word in Latin
pūnītor, -ōris m avenger. Example sentence: “Have you seen the new Avengers movie?” “No, I haven’t even seen the first one.” “vidistine pelilculam cinematographicam novam ‘Punitores’?” “immo, peliculam cinematographicam primam etiam non vidi.”
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To be deep in history
“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Sometimes, I just feel like a wayward Protestant sticking her nose a little too much into the ancient, way-more-Catholic-than-Protestant, world. Why would a Protestant even read history prior to the sixteenth century? Wasn’t that a time of “Great Apostacy”?