Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
The sales figures for the books have come in. The Eusebius is still selling, although not in great numbers; the Origen has yet to really get underway, although it may do better once the reviews appear. I’ve continued to work on the Mithras website. For the most part this is reactive; e.g. somebody posts an […]
It’s hotter than hell in the office in which I work, which is not helping me get anything done! However I’m also close to Cambridge University Library, and I’ve made two trips there in the evening this week, in search of books and articles. I’m still thinking about Severian of Gabala. I’ve now obtained a […]
Over the last couple of months, I have become aware of another individual who, quietly, and without any fanfare, is making a real difference to ancient history online. Her name is Carole Raddato, and she writes the Following Hadrian blog. What she is doing is travelling all over the Roman Empire, and photographing its material […]
There’s no getting away from it: the Roman city of Leptis Magna in Libya is gorgeous. It’s situated by the sea, the surrounding area is very underdeveloped, thanks to Gaddafi’s tyranny, and it gives you such a great idea of what a Roman city looked like. I’ve been twice, and would gladly go again. Even […]
Lately I’ve been taking an interest in the monuments of Mithras in Egypt. Apparently some are in the museum in Alexandria, while others come from Memphis and are in the Graeco-Roman room in the Cairo museum. I haven’t been very fortunate in finding images from either online. Is it possible that one or both of […]
This evening I was looking through some PDF’s of a Mithras reference volume, which a correspondent very kindly scanned for me some time back. I keep a copy on my travelling laptop, and so when I am working away from home, I can work on the site in the evenings in the hotel. I was, in fact, […]
The philosopher Damascius was the last head of the Academy at Athens, at the time when it was closed down by Justinian in 529 AD. His Problems and Solutions concerning first principles has recently been translated by Sara Ahbel-Rappe, and a preview of the book is online. This is a very useful piece of work; […]
I’m still working away on the Mithras site. This week I’ve been dealing with the find of statues and inscriptions at Merida in 1902-3, when a bull ring was constructed. No archaeological investigation was undertaken, and details are very hazy. Meanwhile I have discovered some time-consuming problems with the footnotes in the Origen book, in […]
I’m very busy with the Mithras site, uploading more data about monuments. Last night I worked on the page on the Caernarvon Mithraeum, adding information from the excavation report. It was discovered in 1959, during preparatory work by a jerry-builder developer, and is now a set of rather dreary-looking 50’s houses. Today I’ve been looking […]