Ancient Times

This weekend I also finished Saturnalia by Lindsey Davis and it was a great read. I like the way the lives of the characters are in the fore with the mysteries taking a bit of a back seat. Unfortunately my neighbor read one of the Falco books and felt like she was missing something. While it is fun reading it as a series, someone should be able to read any of the books as a stand-alone. There are a great many references to previous stories which must make it confusing for a first time reader.

I’m also at the end of the second (and final) season of Rome. There is one more episode left and we have the Battle of Actium, Marc Antony’s death, and Cleopatra’s death to deal with. I would like to see a few more people die as well; most of them are really nasty. While I praised the historical accuracy in the first season (and the producers took a great deal of pride in their set) the second season is playing fast and loose with the truth. But I think it’s amusing the way they work the characters of Vorenus and Pulla into every major event. They even had Pulla kill Cicero in his villa instead of while he was fleeing to the coast!

A little detail like that is no big deal, but then they totally re-worked Marc Antony’s relationships and the death of Brutus’ mother. I also resent the overall grimness of Rome. According to the show, every woman is a scheming bitch and every man has killed someone just for heck of it at one time or another. I would rather think of Rome like any other big city. There are nice people and not so nice people but everyone is just trying to get along in life. There are always Lindsey Davis’s books if I want a more pleasant portrayal of Rome.

BOOK Sale!!

I went to a big book sale this past weekend and promised myself I wouldn’t get too many books. But here’s what I found:

• The first two volumes of Mervyn Peake’s Gormangast trilogy (I’ll go back on half-price day to try to find the third volume)
• Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa.
• A Saint book by Leslie Charteris
• A textbook on Economic Botany (it’s not paleoethnobotany but it’s a good foundation)
• Medicus by Ruth Downie (another mystery series set in Ancient Rome)
• And a cute little Latin dictionary

Plinean or Plinian?

As a treat for getting a somewhat decent full-time job, I purchased the first of 10 volumes of Pliny’s Natural History. What a great book! Latin on the left hand page and English on the right-hand page…. It’s really helping my Latin vocab! I’ll buy a new volume every couple of months… then I’ll start on the 28 volumes of Cicero.

Plinian quote of the day “To be awake is to be alive.” [Vita vigilia est] Pliny recommends only 4-5 hours of sleep each night with a couple of naps during the day. He feels that it will give you more time to study and write… and he wrote a lot!

Io Saturnalia!

I finally got my hot little hands on Lindsey Davis’ Saturnalia. I’m reading it as slowly as I can to make it last! I also have to tell everyone about Guba a web site that has videos available. Unlike YouTube, the videos are not chopped into 10 minute bites. I have been watching full episodes of such British classics as Callan, Up Pompeii, and Time Team.; as well as cult classic Sapphire & Steel. You need a fairly decent Internet connection to see these (or else they just keep buffering…) It get frustrating especially during the exciting bits of Callan.