Arthur Brown was a classics teacher at my boys' grammar school in Colchester in the 1960s, and he inspired my interest in Latin and Greek, which became my favourite subjects. He encouraged me to think much more aspirationally than I would otherwise have done, too. I wouldn't have thought of applying to Oxbridge if it hadn't been for him. He was enthusiastic about cricket.   more »

PhDiva comments in her Blog on 2006 being supposedly the 60th anniversary of the bikini. She points out not only the bikini-wearing females on the mosaics at Piazza Armerina, Sicily, but also evidence of bikinis from Bulgaria - a statue this time.   more »

Since I am just going to buy my train tickets for a holiday tracing the short journey that Ausonius describes in his poem Miosella, I was glad to see this piece by Peter Stothard in The Times. It's actually a review of Barrington's Atlas.   more »

Only the drawings on the Grecian urns are left behind us to have an idea about the greatness of Grecian art. Certainly these drawings are enough to invoke poetic imagination indeed. Remember the great poem of John Keats 'Ode to a Grecian urn�.   more »

"I think more so than anything, Latin is a culture shock, and you need to understand basic concepts such as having five different cases for nouns."   more »