Monthly Archives: March 2014

Break Time

Dear readers: I will be out of the country for the next eight days, and will not be posting any more notes on Persius or anything else until I get back, as I will not have access to my boo<k>s. … Continue reading

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Who Invented Ten-Sided Dice?

Who invented the ‘d10’ ten-sided dice used in many modern board games? I don’t know, but Shakespeare seems to presume their existence in the last scene of Timon of Athens (variously numbered 5.4, 5.5, or 17), lines 31-34, where the … Continue reading

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Three Small Problems in Persius, Prologus 14

1. I find Harvey’s argument for a question mark at the end of the poem compelling and do not understand why subsequent editors have not followed him. I’m tempted to quote his entire long paragraph (9), but these bits should … Continue reading

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POTIS Comment Policy

A Public On-Line Textual-Interpretative Seminar (POTIS) is a new thing for me and – as far as I know – the classical world, though the APA has announced plans for something similar. No doubt it will take some time to … Continue reading

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Index and Database

Before I put together my Adversaria database (here), I made a simple Index file for Persius (here). Should I try to combine the two, or keep them separate? Does anyone have any advice on that? (Please note: your first comment … Continue reading

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Categories of Adversaria

As mentioned in my previous post, I plan to assign categories to my various notes so users can filter them to see only what they want to see. This will become more important as their number increases. Here are my … Continue reading

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Vaut le Detour? Adversaria as Database

Apologies for the long delay in my Persius project. As soon as I uploaded my first few Persius Adversaria, I realized that I needed to rethink the whole web-publication process, since blog posts with links to printable PDF versions would … Continue reading

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Persius 1.53: An Udderly Hypocritical Patron

A rich patron fishes for compliments (1.53-55):                         calidum scis ponere sumen, scis comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna, et ‘verum’ inquis ‘amo, verum mihi dicite de me.’        55 The two gifts offered as bait are oddly assorted. A worn cloak shows a … Continue reading

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Persius 1.4: Machinical Error?

A minor question of orthography: ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem The name of the Trojan hero Πολυδάμας does not scan in hexameters: the first three syllables are short. Homer therefore lengthened the first syllable to make Πουλυδάμας. How that … Continue reading

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Persius 5.159: When Two Ets Are Two Too Many

A concise animal allegory illustrates the difficulty of achieving true freedom (5.157-60): nec tu, cum obstiteris semel instantique negaris parere imperio, ‘rupi iam uincula’ dicas; nam et luctata canis nodum abripit, et tamen illi, cum fugit, a collo trahitur pars … Continue reading

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