Most academics I know are quick to condemn the value of wikipedia as a concept as well as content. When a new batch of undergraduates arrive at the university for the first time, professors are eager to warn them against the evils of the online encyclopaedia. They usually mention how unreliable are the entries, how impossible it is to identify the writer behind them, how the text does not engage i... »
This is a topic I know very little about but I find terribly fascinating. As a Roman historian I find myself in the ‘superior’ position to judge other cultures and to find them inferior. With regard to the Viking culture, until recently I thought that it was a primitive sort of civilisation, based on a militarised society that was solely interested in war, plunder, rapes etc. At least, this is the... »
The debate on the authorship of Shakespeare’s works has been raging for several centuries. Scholars are not closer to agreeing on any one and there is a strong possibility that there will be no conclusion in the near future. English professors took central stage in this debate… until now. An astrophysicist entered the race, hoping that he will come up with a solution through the rigorous app... »
It is almost a year since George Kakavas became the Director of the Numismatic Museum in Athens. Admittedly, when he first took the post, I had my reservations. After all, he is not a numismatist but he has a background in Archaeology and History of Art. Since then I followed closely the changes that took place in the museum. A year later I am happy to say that, despite the economic crisis, some a... »
In the beginning of the Peloponnesian war and, specifically, in 430 BC a Plague epidemic crippled the city of Athens. The plague spread in the city during its siege by the Spartans and it killed a quarter of the population. Among them we count the famous statesman, Pericles. Several diseases have been suggested but there is no definitive proof for any of them. And yet, some time ago the skeleton o... »
You can find some of the published inscriptions of Athens and Attica in English translation at the following site: www.atticinscriptions.com “It is being launched with translations of the 281 inscribed laws and decrees of Athens, 352/1-322/1 BC, which have recently been edited by Stephen Lambert as *IG *II3 1, 292-572.” (Seen in Classics list) The material will probably be updated soon... »