Friday, March 13, 2009

Columbaria inter alia


Eternallycool has some interesting posts and some great photos of a couple of different exhibitions on at the Palazzo Massimo at the moment. Check out these beautiful frescoes taken from columbaria, and this incredible carved sarcophagus.
I visited the Palazzo Massimo last time I was in Rome and loved it, and I'm a bit sad I won't get to see these new exhibitions in person (they're only on display for a short time). The photo in this post comes from there, as do this one and this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"So, who knows what Latin word "muscle" comes from?"

Ooh, ooh! Pick me, Biology lecturer! It's surprising where those 6 years of Latin will come in handy!

[[Even if it is only to look intelligent/like a nerd in front of other students =)]]

Anonymous said...

i'm glad it's come in handy. i've always thought the best reason for learning Latin is to impress other people.

Anonymous said...

Damn Stocko!- I can always tell its you! :)

It's okay, you dont have to try-you'll always be a nerd to me ;)

You know Mr.M, just the other day my phys lecturer was being all sarcastic and telling us to read one of Newton's original book (in Latin)- I actually took him seriously that day.

...Although if you must, I never got around to it, unfortunately. How's everything going? Hope it's all well. (I heard Zukie left though).

Anonymous said...

Yes, Nat, you can pick me from my exquisite English grammar [because as we all can only too readily attest, my Latin grammar was often sorely lacking...(blasted Ablatives.)], my use of punctuation and the use of square brackets. Not to mention the sarcasm...

It's nice to know I'm so loved.

[And I hope you replied to your lecturer with a "well, I could if I wanted," =)]

As for Latin being used to impress people, Sir, it's always an impressive party trick. My debating team for the week attempted to tell me it was alright to insult people in another language in the middle of a debate, because their opposition often wouldn't know they were being insulted. In response, I insulted them in Latin. Rather heartily, I might add.

They were too impressed by the fact their coach was speaking Latin to notice I was calling them "a bunch of particularly stupid blockheads who smelt like goats." [also, their Latin knowledge begins and ends with "Caecilius est in horto".]

At any rate, my point was made and their lesson learned. They then let me move on to rant about rebuttal for the rest of the hour.