Willing migrants? An ancient Mediterranean perspective on forced labour
November 2, 2017
David Lewis discusses slavery and migration, ancient and modern. Ben Carson – Donald Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – has recently made yet another remarkable statement about US slavery. Speaking in Washington on March 6th 2017, Carson claimed that slaves travelling to the US in the holds of slave ships were migrants seeking …
The old pound coin goes out of circulation on Sunday – but what did the Romans do with old coinage?
October 13, 2017
A post by Notitngham PhD student Becky Batty, guest from Mint Imperials [English pound coin, 2008 – one for the archives!] If you’ve been in the UK over the past couple of months, you’re sure to have noticed the gradual disappearance of the ‘old’ pound. The new 12-sided pound coins have been slowly replacing the …
“If … you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere”
October 10, 2016
Oliver Thomas discusses Theresa May’s recent speech about citizenship and being a “citizen of the world”. What would Diogenes have made of it all?
Classical inspirations
November 6, 2015
This November each department in Humanities is running a Twitter campaign where members of the school post images representing themselves with a favourite aspect of their discipline. In Classics, our hashtag is #itsaclassic, and our particular theme is what inspired each of us to take up studying the classical world at university. As Admissions Officer, …
Effaced: the missing noses of classical antiquity
October 23, 2015
Mark Bradley explores an important cross-cultural phenomenon. A display cabinet in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, exhibits scores of disembodied noses (and various other appendages) from its Greek and Roman sculpture collections. This macabre collection of body parts was assembled in 1981 out of marble and plaster noses that had been deliberately removed by the …
Back to the Future
February 13, 2015
Katharina Lorenz revisits Percy Gardner’s views on Classics, teaching ancient art, and changing the world. “If anything has been proved in the history of education during the last half century, it is that mere technical instruction in detail does not produce the highest efficiency. It is here that many so-called practical men are mistaken. The …
Caesar Crosses the Rubicon!
January 10, 2015
As part of the Nottingham ‘Anniversaries through Coins’ project, Michael Welbourn reports how, on this day the tenth of January, in 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubicon and precipitated the final crisis of the Roman republic. Tracing the roots of this momentous decision requires us to go back eleven years to 60 BC. …
Coming Soon: Theatre with a Classical Connection…
January 7, 2015
Lynn Fotheringham has been searching out theatrical productions with a classical connection over the next few months, in Nottingham, nearby cities and London. Sheffield, 13th February only, 13.00: Phaedra’s Love, semi-staged reading as part of a season of the complete works of Sarah Kane, whose reputation for writing plays with lots of on-stage violence suggests …
Drama or History?
December 15, 2014
Victoria Moore, a part-time student on the MA in The Visual Culture of Classical Antiquity, reflects on her experience of The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi, performed by Opera North at the Royal Theatre, Nottingham. I have to say that I am not familiar with any of Monteverdi’s operas, so my main expectation was of …
Julian ‘the Apostate’ Comes to Power
December 11, 2014
As part of the Nottingham Anniversaries through Coins project, Robert Stone describes how on this day, 11th December, in 361, the last pagan emperor Julian II (also known as Julian the Apostate) entered Constantinople as the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Following the death of Constantine I (337), the Empire was divided between his …
Find, follow, join us
