Join Legio IV Hispana as they prepare and serve a traditional Roman banquet in the reconstructed Commanding Officer's house and have a go at some archery.   more »

The Capitoline Museum has an exhibition of Roman perfumes.   more »

I’m going to be taking a serious, hard look at the traces of religious activities that have come up from the excavations (what exactly were those “lararia” for?).   more »

Ancient history will disappear as an A-level if recommendations from an examination board are approved later this year.   more »

"If you have never been to a Latin Mass before, sit back and take it in,"   more »

Spurred by activists for one of the country's four official languages, Microsoft Corp has released a Romansch edition of its office software, and Google has introduced a version of its search engine in the language.   more »

Several versions of the lady can be admired at the Louvre, which has organized a rare Praxiteles exhibition. Most of his works survived only in the form of Roman copies. The originals were destroyed by the ravages of time, natural disasters or Christian zealots who, like the Taliban, wouldn't tolerate images of pagan sensuality.   more »

ROMANS, Vikings and medieval minstrels will re-enact Peterborough's past in the city's Cathedral Square thanks to a generous Lottery grant.   more »

It is, famously, a dead language. But it seems that Latin is on the brink of an unlikely comeback. The conservative Pope Benedict XVI is poised to authorise wider use of the Latin mass. And, perhaps to ingratiate themselves with the boss, the managers of the Vatican bank have quietly put instructions in Latin on the cash dispenser at the back of St Peter's. Customers are told to put in their cards with the words: "Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem." On Sicily, meanwhile, Latin is being heard in homes in the city of Catania   more »

Each time Oxford University Press sends its list of newly published Classical books I look through it to see which, if any, might be useful in school.   more »

Robin Hilliard has kindly provided two Lit 3 exams for Tacitus Annals 1 and one for Ovid Amores.   more »

After a weekend in which a whole bunch of people apologised for the slave trade which was abolished a century and a half before most of them were born, we should now go and find the Ottoman's decedents and the those of the Romans   more »

WITH more fouls than a Premiership football match, there is an opportunity for families to find out how the Romans made murder into a sport in Horrible Histories at Cambridge Arts Theatre.   more »

The obituary of the doctor Bernard Winfield (today's Guardian) contains this fascinating gem:   more »

This tantalisingly brief bit of news came in last Wednesday's Guardian:   more »

Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce are historical heroes of the moment. I was delighted to discover, on the excellent and subversive Mother Jones website, the influence of a Latin essay competition on Clarkson.   more »

This take on the TV series 'Rome' is different, and your students might like to debate it.   more »

A fuller account of the Greek and Roman theatre acoustics that I noted the other day. This account still confounds theatres and amphitheatres.   more »

Once again, an instance of the US raising the profile of Latin.   more »

The most anticipated museum event in New York this spring is the April 20 unveiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new Greek and Roman galleries, whose centerpiece is the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court.   more »

Robert West has kindly shared his notes on the A level text from Tacitus Annals book 1.   more »

This suggestion by QCA reveals what, in officialdom's eyes, testing is for. It is not to benefit the pupils but to enable faceless civil servants to compile statistics.   more »

Veni Vidi Vici In a dialogue attacking divination and astrology, Cicero tells the following story: when Marcus Crassus was about to set out on the expedition to Parthia (which was to end in his and his army's destruction), a man on the quayside was selling figs from Caunus (south Turkey) and therefore shouting Cauneas ('cow-nay-arse')!   more »

They found that the acoustics improved as the theatres got more enclosed, had steeper seats and higher stages, and were built from harder materials.   more »

Tomorrow's Times carries a piece by someone called Natalie Haynes reacting to the news that it's harder to get an A in Latin than in any other GCSE.   more »

"Three of us have decided to organise a competition for Latin students on May 5th which will take place simultaneously in France, Berlin and the UK, and will be linked by video-conferencing. "   more »

Expert stonemasons are busy chipping away at Leeds City Council's nurseries at Red Hall to lay the foundations for the city's Roman-themed entry to this year's Chelsea Flower Show.   more »

exceptis lectionibus, homilia et oratione fidelium, aequum est ut huiusmodi celebrationes fiant lingua Latina; similiter Latine recitentur orationes pervulgatae Ecclesiae traditionis et forte cantentur quaedam partes in cantu Gregoriano.   more »

Definitely one for the coffee break, though it might go on the classroom wall for discussion.   more »

I am learning about ancient civilizations in school. Our teacher said that jars called amphorae, found on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, were most often used for transporting "garum" fish sauce by the ancient Romans. What is garum fish sauce?   more »

VENI, vidi, vici! Pupils at Penicuik primary school came, saw and conquered when it came to a recent project on the Romans.   more »

So, as expected, the Pope has encouraged priests to revive the Latin Mass - and has reiterated that I'm not welcome.   more »

An email from Mary Beard alerted me to this debate in the Guardian. It seems to have a happy ending, and raises some interesting points along the way.   more »

The teaching of classics in schools is supposed to be in terminal decline, but a conference at Stonyhurst College has proved that it is still alive and kicking.   more »

Make sure Latin and Greek are included in this new government initiative. Minimus has a proven track record in primary schools. It should be a key part of primary language provision.   more »

Trier museum has scenes of families dining, of pupils and their teacher, and of tenants paying rent to their landlord, but I don't know how to interpret this one. Suggestions welcome. It's a good picture to illustrate different chairs and a table.   more »

According to Dr Coe's research, Latin is the most difficult exam followed by German, Spanish and French. The easiest for top-grade passes are sport/PE, design and technology (textiles), drama and the often-criticised media studies. He noted that there was more than a grade's difference between the hardest and easiest subjects.   more »

Benedict wrote in his memoirs, My Life: Memories 1927-1977, published when he was still a cardinal: "I was stunned by the ban on the ancient missal."   more »

In addition to their free 'life of the day' which you can have emailed to you, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography people issue a monthly on-line magazine which gives free access to lives that are in some way topical.   more »

The suggestion of Grade conversion, so that an A in Latin would have greater weighting than one in Sport/PE, has now been publicly raised. The government and QCA now risk being seen in the same light as Bush's administration; just as Bush refused to accept scientific evidence of global warming and   more »

Who knows how many lists were drawn up over the centuries, but long after Greece had been annexed by Rome and Rome itself had declined and fallen, the seven wonders of the world had become an established and familiar part of western mythology.   more »

I keep seeing adverts for the film about Thermopylae (opening 23rd March) on the television, and the Times has a piece about it. If you read the comments on the piece, you'll see that the reviewer is roundly accused:   more »

A HARDY band of Welshmen in red, who took on the might of the Italians 2,000 years ago, could prove inspirational for tomorrow's Welsh Six Nations warriors.   more »

ROMANS will be taking to the streets to raise money for Red Nose Day next Friday.   more »

Mary Beard had Boris Johnson to talk to her Classics faculty yesterday - she posted on her blog at 1.23 a.m., so clearly is a late bird - and reports on the occasion and on her feelings about the 'endearing toff'.   more »

I meant to write a review of the Stratford Coriolanus a week or more ago. I was there for the first night, and since it was my first (and last) experience of the theatre in its old form, I enjoyed the production for itself, without the background that Charles Spencer brought to it (review, below).   more »

Taking a stroll through history has been made a little easier at the new-look Fishbourne Roman Palace, which has been officially unveiled by Time Team's Tony Robinson.

Guests flocked to the palace to see the result of a major £3.5m building and refurbishment project on the site to help preserve it, and create valuable space to store and study artefacts.   more »

There's a bit of Classical stuff on a blog called   more »

We had a fantastic Classics teacher who was very eccentric: we never knew if she was going to talk about Latin or her first kiss.   more »

It seems that someone called Jonathan Evans is to be Director General of MI5. Evans joined MI5 in 1980 after graduating with a degree in classical studies from Bristol University.   more »

Yes, this is a very humble example, I know. It would have been even better if the teacher had managed to get an 'angle' to make the newspaper item more attention-grabbing, but he did get something into the Somerset County Gazette, with a photo of the class at the baths.   more »

She’s powerful, she’s feisty and she’s worthy of her own Rock Opera.

So says New Zealand music maestro Clive Cockburn who created Boadicea - The Rock Opera, which opens in Auckland next month.   more »

David Swift's notes from his option group on the Amores at the ArLT Refresher Day are now being put on line   more »

I did not think the examination boards could be so stupid. Silly me!   more »

“The best independent schools are stretching their most able pupils,” he said. “There are ways in which state-school pupils are not as well guided as applicants from independent schools. "   more »

Paul O'Mahony and Richard Darbourne will be visiting Oxfordshire state primary and secondary schools with their interactive Classical workshops. The actors have come up with a series of workshops based around Classical myths and philosophy which they have named "Living Classics", which encourage children to engage with the Classics and explore how they are relevant to the curriculum.   more »

A power point presentation on School Trips to Italy and Greece, prepared for the ArLT Refresher Day   more »

Last on the programme today was Alison Cooley on 'Scratching a Living in Pompeii'. She emphasised her horror when people spoke of the professionally painted election slogans and other painted notices as graffiti.   more »

petitus ad Septembrem MMVII magister aut magistra impiger, diligens et bene doctus ad linguam Latinam et Graecam   more »

The alarm went off at 4.30 a.m. down in Somerset, and I arrived at King Henry VIII School in Coventry just as the doors were being shut before the first session at 10.   more »

This news item yesterday reminded me of an incident in the classroom a few years ago:   more »

See Mary Beard's blog for something on an emperor's (Maxentius?) ceremonial jewels and on finds from Rome excavations in the last 20 years.   more »

I haven't yet understood the implications of a lottery for school places. Is it that richer parents will no longer be able to ensure a place in a 'good' state school by buying a house nearby? Will there be a huge change of direction in schools as a result...   more »

I do love these children's Roman Mystery books, so it's good news that Caroline Lawrence has produced another one.   more »

This account from Spiegel is salacious in the fashion of The Sun, but the book as a whole looks fun.   more »

Here's an ambitious new four million dollar project to inspire us in the UK.   more »

I've only just seen this table published last autumn by the Sunday Times. All the starting salaries are surprisingly similar, whatever the subject in which one graduates. A decade or two into the future and things will probably be very different, of course. The accountant will probably be earning a lot more than the teacher. But it wouldn't do any harm to pin the figures up in your classroom.   more »

Several home-schooling parents have contacted ARLT about teaching Latin to their children/pupils. The movement seems to be strongest in the USA, so it is interesting to find that it is growing here in the UK as well.   more »