Archive

History

The Punic Wars Part II | From A (Alps) to Z (Zama)

The second great conflict between Rome and Carthage is the most well-known because of the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal Barca. While this war, like the first Punic War, ended in victory for Rome, it is Hannibal and his elephants, crossing the Alps into Italy, which has captured people’s imaginations. After the end of the first Punic War, and after defeating the rebellious (and unpaid) mercenaries in Carthage, Hamilcar, father of… Read more

History

Women in Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, part 2

Study of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers[1] gives us tantalizing snippets of information about women of whom we might never have heard. He tells us of nameless women, wives, daughters and courtesans. He wrote, for example, that Timon had a wife and son, but we are told nothing about them. Eudoxus had three daughters, but we are told only their names, Actis, Philtis and Delphis. In the first… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Georgios Gemistos Plethon, with Brian Prescott-Decie

We were excited to welcome Brian Prescott-Decie for an  Open House entitled “Georgios Gemistos Plethon: The Role of Byzantine Scholarship in the Preservation of Platonic and Neo-Platonic Thought.” The event took place on Friday, October 15 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. To get ready for the event, you might like to read the passages in this PDF: Texts for Plethon discussion You can watch the recording on our… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | October 2021: Agamemnon, the Pathetic Despot

For October, we will be reading Andrew Porter’s 2019 book Agamemnon, the Pathetic Despot: Reading Characterization in Homer, available at the Center for Hellenic Studies website. That page provides an overview of his approach to the subject: Agamemnon led a ten-year-long struggle at Troy only to return home and die a pathetic death at his wife’s hands. Yet while Agamemnon’s story exerts an outsize influence—rivaled by few epic personalities—on the… Read more

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Teaching Greek in the 21st Century, with Gregory Crane and Farnoosh Shamsian

We were excited to welcome Gregory Crane and Farnoosh Shamsian for an Open House entitled “Teaching Greek in the 21st Century.” The event took place on Friday, October 1, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. You can watch the video on our YouTube channel, or in the frame below. From the discussion: https://beyond-translation.perseus.org https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ https://scaife.perseus.org For further videos please visit the Watch page. Gregory Crane Gregory Crane is… Read more