Final Tidbits Before I Return to Chicago
Yes, I go back tomorrow. My friends and the lynch mob can expect me sometime in the early to mid-afternoon. As much as I look forward to their company, I also will appreciate the release from leisure and idleness into a high-powered intellectual environment where I will need to enter the sphere of action very quickly.
But Before I Go, Here are Some Random Roman Facts
Adapted from Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino.
1. On June 7 of each year, one of the praetors organized a fishing tournament in honor of Vulcan. After the tournament, a fish fry was held. Apparently, the fishing tournament was the relict of an older tradition in which roasted fish were offered to Vulcan in place of human sacrifices. I'll never look at bass fishing the same way again.
2. The Romans were known to train elephants to write Latin phrases in the sand of the arena.
3. When the movie Gladiator came out, classicists claimed that the whole thumbs up (let live) thumbs down (kill) sign system at gladiatorial games was actually the other way around, but Hollywood in the 1920s thought the other system was more logical to a modern audience. Apparently, at least one scholar in that era thought that Hollywood had it right. Barring other documentary evidence such as art that probably has been discovered since that time, it appears that one's opinion should turn on the phrase pollicem vertere (to turn one's thumb [presumably from whatever was considered the natural position]). Frankly, I think an upturned thumb is more comfortable. Nature, if children are any example, seems to think the thumb should be in the mouth.
Registration For My Classes Continues to Increase
Going from a low of 14 to a high of 28 at last count.
ESA(20040923.1)
Yes, I go back tomorrow. My friends and the lynch mob can expect me sometime in the early to mid-afternoon. As much as I look forward to their company, I also will appreciate the release from leisure and idleness into a high-powered intellectual environment where I will need to enter the sphere of action very quickly.
But Before I Go, Here are Some Random Roman Facts
Adapted from Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino.
1. On June 7 of each year, one of the praetors organized a fishing tournament in honor of Vulcan. After the tournament, a fish fry was held. Apparently, the fishing tournament was the relict of an older tradition in which roasted fish were offered to Vulcan in place of human sacrifices. I'll never look at bass fishing the same way again.
2. The Romans were known to train elephants to write Latin phrases in the sand of the arena.
3. When the movie Gladiator came out, classicists claimed that the whole thumbs up (let live) thumbs down (kill) sign system at gladiatorial games was actually the other way around, but Hollywood in the 1920s thought the other system was more logical to a modern audience. Apparently, at least one scholar in that era thought that Hollywood had it right. Barring other documentary evidence such as art that probably has been discovered since that time, it appears that one's opinion should turn on the phrase pollicem vertere (to turn one's thumb [presumably from whatever was considered the natural position]). Frankly, I think an upturned thumb is more comfortable. Nature, if children are any example, seems to think the thumb should be in the mouth.
Registration For My Classes Continues to Increase
Going from a low of 14 to a high of 28 at last count.
ESA(20040923.1)
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