A sometimes humorous view of ancient history, archaeology and their reception.
A few months ago when preparing recreations of bruise treatments outlined in the Medicina Plinii for student discussions, I bought some mustard greens from my green grocer because they had short roots still attached. I stuck most in a planter and the leftover two in water held in an Egyptian glass vase which I placed […]
This morning I decided to finally cook tagenitai, Ancient Greek pancakes, for brunch. I say finally because I had already bought all the ingredients more than a week ago. I didn’t know anything about these until I came across a video on Max Miller’s “Tasting History” social media. His website provides the recipe I followed […]
While The Odyssey came out last Thursday, the 16th of August, I finally got to see it this morning. To my ultimate surprise, I enjoyed it. When the project was first announced I poo-hooed it and wasn’t going to see it (my standard attitude for this variety of film), but my brother was all “but […]
Back in June I ordered a reproduction Roman lamp via Etsy from a Turkish potter who sells under the company name SK Ceramic Art. You can find their Etsy store here, and it is one of the few places I was able to find a working reproduction Roman style lamp being made and sold outside […]
My garum order from Selo de Mar, a Portuguese company making Roman-style garum with the help of Sally Grainger arrived a week ago. I ordered two bottles: one made from sardines, and one made from Atlantic mackerel. Today, having finally recovered from some illness (no I don’t know what it was except for unpleasant), I […]
If I hear one more American commentator refer to panem et circenses when comparing Donald Trump’s UFC themed birthday party to Roman emperors and gladiators I might just scream. Panem et circenses literally means “bread and circuses” and has nothing to do with gladiators. The phrase comes from the second century CE satirist Juvenal’s tenth […]
When I started my blog, Spare a Talent, back in 2013 on Blogger, I never imagined the AI “revolution” would push me away from that platform. I am actually sad to see it go. Not just because I have been getting what seems to me to be a surprising number of visitors for extraordinarily niche […]