A review article in the Times Literary Supplement discusses the art of translating poetry with particular reference to Ted Hughes.   more »

Every week a European Qultures E-newspaper is published, which I believe will have your interest.   more »

Rob Soames, as noted in a recent post here, has taken over as Director of the ARLT Summer School in Cambridge beginning 22nd July. Here is his Director's Message.   more »

...a thesis that brought together architecture, literature and religion in a highly original way. Maskarinec has been selected as the class of 2007's salutatorian and will continue the Princeton tradition of delivering a speech in Latin at Commencement June 5.   more »

Reactions to a campaign to correct a mistake in a city's Latin motto show a regrettable philistine attitude on the part of the present mayor and members of his council.   more »

Good news from Grand Rapids Press that two Plautus comedies are bring performed tomorrow, but if they are being given a simultaneous translation by the actors they surely can't be performed complete. It would take far too long.   more »

When they weren't busy founding modern civilization, the ancient Greeks and Romans spent their free time much like we do -- shoe shopping, rocking out at concerts and gossiping at parties.   more »

Those who argue for Latin as the universal language find support in Linnaeus and his naming of species. He was born in May 1707, so articles about him have been appearing.   more »

"I was expecting to see riot police and a rabble, but all I saw instead was a man dressed up as a Roman addressing school students in Latin," said a clearly disappointed Janukievic.   more »

A couple of mentions of the influence of particular Latin teachers, and a review of Stravinsky Oedipus Rex.   more »

Newsletter no. 37 has just been sent to all who have registered on the website database.   more »

A two-day conference on the future of the Latin language opened in Rome on May 25, with academics, politicians, and journalists discussing the role of the language in forming European identity.   more »

Colleagues with a smattering of French will doubtless be interested in the initiative reported below.   more »

My erudite readers probably know all about Robert Sonkowsky already; but I didn't, and I am excited by the discovery.   more »

"it is a state sixth-form college in Basingstoke that is the country's leading bastion of Greek and Roman history - with well over 200 pupils, out of a national total of about 1,500, studying the subject at AS and A2."   more »

Times obituary of Christopher Train, Director of Prisons; £2,000 taxi for afternoon with Aristotle   more »

Turks claim 'Armenian' graveyard is Roman. 'Antonine Guards' visited the Scottish Parliament. Nethergate: Resurrection Released. Romans in Walton-le-Dale. London Roman's remains go on show   more »

Hidden away in a report of a 100% score in the Introduction to Latin National Exam, achieved by a 15 year old in Annapolis, is this chilling sentence:   more »

A brief note to say Euge! appeared in Private Eye today with a cartoon.   more »

You may recall the Independent report, full of inaccuracies, which I noted recently. Now those inaccuracies have received the Ciceronian scorn they merited in the following letter:   more »

There's a picture of a late Roman ring on several websites. It was brought back to Derby from an Ephesus dig, apparently, and is being returned to Turkey.   more »

Sir, As one of a rare breed, a teacher of Latin in a state comprehensive, I feel ...   more »

Marston’s dance, Echo and Narcissus, is a far more powerful, satisfying experience.   more »

Cullen Murphy has written 'Are We Rome?'   more »

Home comforts which made Roman centurions the envy of the squaddies they commanded have been revealed at a fort on Tyneside.   more »

Mr Allen said the find made the area one of Roman Britain's most important sites.   more »

Roman holiday: A trip back in time Sun, saunas, sex, and sandals - Ancient Rome had it all. But what was it like to walk the streets, gaze at gladiators and jostle with locals of the Eternal City? Oxford professor Philip Matyszak takes you on an extraordinary journey to the cradle of civilisation   more »

The Times Literary Supplement has a review by of a posthumously published memoir by David Grene   more »

There’s quite an interesting six page feature on Ancient Rome in the Independent today (Extra, pages 1-6)   more »

Rob Soames, husband of our ArLT President, has taken over as Director of the 2007 ArLT Summer School in Cambridge. The Summer School, which is a recognised INSET event for teachers of Classical subjects, runs from Sunday 22nd - Wednesday 25th July 2007 in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.   more »

Many news items, particularly archaeological news, come under the heading of interesting but not vital for teachers.   more »

Westminster Academy students dressed in togas and recited Catiline Orations, which works within the school's tradition of teaching students rhetoric and logic.   more »

A full report with pics is on the French blog at http://concourseuropeencicerofr.blogspot.com/   more »

I thought we'd have some fun with the slide show presentation...   more »

A positive report on the CICERO competition from two of the German competitors.   more »

I've been sent some of the questions used in the CICERO competition (see recent posts passim). I couldn't begin to answer them. If you can read this version, can you answer the questions?   more »

Following good media coverage of the 'Latin in state schools' survey, Will Griffiths writes:   more »

I thought you'd like to know that the number of schools contacting us to start up Latin continues to average 2-3 per day!   more »

Younger pupils at Cheney School, which already offers Latin and Ancient Greek among its language courses, were introduced to Latin as part of the Iris project, a classics project which aims to make the subject more appealing to state school pupils.   more »

Why? Because we like Latin, because we wanted to meet other people who liked Latin to the same degree as ourselves, and because we wanted to have some Latin-based fun.   more »

According to researchers from Warwick Manufacturing Group and the new Warwick Digital Laboratory, University of Warwick, the new initiative aims to depict more accurately and realistically how heritage sites may have looked in their heyday.   more »

This press release, released at 3.30 this afternoon, brings the good news and reactions to it. Now we must see that our students also see the value of Ancient History, and take up the subject in large numbers.   more »

A BBC video report on the problems of preserving Rome's ancient buildings includes footage of Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.   more »

Background to the gladiators' graveyard programme is here.   more »

A study by the Cambridge Classic Project has discovered that there are now 459 state secondary schools teaching Latin. That is not very many, out of a total of 4,000, but in 2003 when Latin was available in only 200 state schools.   more »

Ahead of the meeting this evening Mr Johnson told EducationGuardian.co.uk: "I have already met with OCR and they are going to see if they can come up with a solution, some sort of deal, but I'm not that confident. I think they think that ancient history isn't a moneyspinner for them."   more »

Thucydides wrote that ancient history was meant to be a possession for ever. Yesterday’s meeting demonstrated that ancient history is as relevant as it was 24 centuries ago.   more »

Tory MP Boris Johnson is expected to don a toga to receive a petition against plans to scrap the last remaining ancient history A-level.   more »

The opportunity to study Latin should be open to any child who wants to take it up, and the fact that the number of state secondary schools offering the language has more than doubled in three years bespeaks a trend we should do everything possible to encourage.   more »

The Telegraph has picked up on the Observer story (see yesterday's blog). Good that the message is spreading.   more »

"I felt an attachment to Latin, but the way it was taught, it was taught like a decoding exercise," she says.   more »

There's always 'many a slip betwixt' announcement of a film and its actual release, but here's hoping that Rosemary Sutcliff's excellent book makes it to the big screen.   more »

A hail of emails hit my in-box yesterday, alerting me to comments on this blog. All the comments make positive contributions in a number of fields.   more »

Many of our Classical friends were called in to contribute to a piece reporting Will Griffiths' research into the number of state schools now offering Latin.   more »

A handsome courtyard building, Lycée Henri IV, 23, rue Clovis, 75005 PARIS   more »

Anne Dicks has sent me this link to an interview with Boris Johnson that her daughter videoed and edited.   more »

I'm watching a rather good BBC2 documentary on gladiators, based on research into a gladiators' graveyard in Ephesus.   more »

There's an exhibition 'Towards a New Laocoon' at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds   more »

Has anyone got the script of this response? If I remember rightly, it was part of the entertainment at the 2004 ArLT Summer School, following a lecture by Lindsey Alison Jones.   more »

The Times Literary Supplement announces:   more »

A re-enactment group was demonstrating Iron Age living over the Bank Holiday weekend. This was on the Somerset levels. Video here.   more »

A great piece of news after last weekend's CICERO competition: Anne Dicks, the organiser, has just been appointed as...   more »

Now here's a novel idea. Evan Millner has begun a series of Latin readings designed to help anyone to absorb the language through their mp3 player.   more »

I am the producer of 'Jason and the Argonauts' a play devised by the company from Apollonius of Rhodes' epic poem Argonautica, written in Alexandria in the late 3rd century BC. Our target audience is age 11 plus, and we feel that the show would be particularly enjoyable for classics student.   more »

I wouldn't normally note archaeological finds with only tangential relevance to Classical Civ, but this one seems a big one   more »

Those lovely children's books have been dramatised and the first episode is on BBC1 tomorrow afternoon at 4.30.   more »

We are still going strong for the second year in a row. I only have about ten students, but I am hoping to increase that next year.   more »

The older editions of the Cambridge Latin Course held a surprise in the 'Roma' stage that hit me on first reading like a punch to the stomach. A night scene in Rome, and the silence was suddenly broken by: 'mi Deus! mi Deus! respice me! quare me deseruisti?'   more »

Here are some more pics from Malvern, in a slightly different slide show.   more »

Pictures from the Certamen In Concordiam Europae Regionum Omnium   more »

In the 16th century a pirate chieftainess, Granuaille, controlled the adjacent seas.   more »

This, from the Daily Telegraph, can be taken as comment on political apathy as shown in the recent elections. That's probably what Craig Brown meant. But it could also be read as a side-swipe at the proposed abolition of Ancient History in favour of general dumbing-down.   more »

At a time when the profile of classical history has never been higher in the mainstream media, and when the uptake of the AS-level alone has tripled since 2000, it seems an act of near lunatic irresponsibility to prevent students from studying a discipline that actually enthuses them. Well might there have been howls of anguish from teachers, a debate in parliament, and even a Downing Street e-petition.   more »

An email registration has just come to the ArLT site from Romania - can't remember if it is our first from there - and I took the opportunity of looking at the school website.   more »

Or Delenda est Carthago!, as every schoolboy used to learn before the educational elite decided that Latin was no longer worth it and the classical world was of no interest to the modern one. If it’s relevance they want, they should all head for the Traverse in Edinburgh to watch Alan Wilkins’s engrossing new play about power, politics, and decadence, set against the improbable background of the Third Punic War, in 149BC.   more »

My son is choosing between Mandarin and Latin at GCSE.   more »

A leading article in today's Times comments on a report that a larger proportion of parents are now sending their children to independent schools.   more »

149,000 entries for a Latin Exam! Compares well with our GCSE entries.   more »

There will be a demonstration outside the House of Commons on Monday, 14th May 2007, from 5:00pm – 7:00pm to protest about the proposed scrapping of the Ancient History A-Level.   more »

A long piece introducing the next series of 'Rome' is   more »

THE days of the Roman Empire will be vividly brought to life this weekend at the Lunt Roman Fort, in Baginton.   more »

"I thought you might be interested to know that the 6th Form Latin competition I am organising as a joint video-conferencing project with teachers in France and Germany is starting to attract some very welcome interest and could end up giving the cause of Classics teaching some good publicity."   more »

Latin courses that were eliminated in schools during the 1970s and 1980s have been revived, leading to a "mini-resurgence" in Maine over the past decade, said Benjamin Johnson, president-elect of the Maine Classical Association, a professional organization for educators. At some schools, students are lining up for the chance to study the language.   more »