Mary Beard's Blog, page 76

Killing babies

One of the things that makes the Greco-Roman world seem so alien is the practice of killing unwanted babies. However much we are shocked by the recent  discoveries of the remains of 8 new-born babies in France (and whatever human tragedy underlies it), the fact is that such things were common in antiquity. Some were disposed of by 'exposure' (put out on a dung heap), others by rather more aggressive forms of murder. There were many Roman houses where dead babies lay under the floorboards...

Civilian casualties, leaks and the ancient view

By and large, Greek and Roman military command had it relatively easy when it came to leaks, civilian casualties and the PR side of warfare. To put it at its crudest, the imperial Roman legions would go off to conquer some bit of foreign territory, they would do it any way they could and come back home and boast about it. Not many people in Rome knew or cared about war crimes. It was winning that mattered.
Of course, it looked different from the barbarian point of view, but the barbarians...

FBA

I am going to allow myself a little boast -- because, as Richard Baron has already noticed in his comment on the last post, I was elected a Fellow of the British Academy yesterday. In fact I have known about this for a couple of months. It's one of those things where you get a letter saying that this is on the cards, but that is not going to be official until it has actually been passed formally at the AGM... and you are not to breathe a word etc etc.

If you are like me -- female...

Big Society: Cassandra speaks

Another advantage (sort of) of getting older is the more accurate predictions you find you can make about bright new initiatives brought in by some bright new government. That's why the elderly can seem a bit smug or grumpy -- they really have seen a lot of this before, and they know all about chickens coming home to roost.

There have been a couple of examples of this over the last few days. First there was the headmaster who was supposed to be earning more than the Prime Minister...

Laughter - Chapter One

I have spent the last few days writing the first chapter of my Laughter book (and finished it today). I had, in fact, written this chapter some time before, a couple of months ago -- but it wasn't right. In fact two colleagues, one in Berkeley and one in Cambridge, tactfully told me that it wasn't quite right.

Looking at it again, I saw what they were getting at. It was frankly a bit boring. So I have had another go at it.

What I  have wanted to do is introduce a book on Roman Laughter...

Do we need bad teachers?

The retiring Chair of Ofsted, Zenna Atkins, has got herself into trouble (and no doubt been misquoted) in saying that it might be good for kids to learn to cope with the occasional bad teacher. Even if she is misquoted, I am with her (despite her ghastly website)... the idea that public services can be free from human frailty is surely bonkers. We all need to learn how to recognise and deal with a teacher/policeman/tax-inspector/doctor we don't entirely trust -- just as we learn how to...

Tea at Claridges . . . and dinner at Westminster School

The husband is away, and I have been in London working (in fact the whole day I spent in the Institute of Classical Studies Library was the most delightful, uninterrupted Library day I have had for months ... and my 'holiday' is I hope going to involve many more such). But the evenings have offered some more sybaritic rewards.

On Tuesday, I went to meet an old schoolfriend, who mostly lives in Singapore, for tea at Claridges -- an English experience we thought we should try before we...

Question Time . . . "and the prize for the prettiest panellist goes to . . ."

Last Thursday I was a panellist on Question Time, the tv equivalent of Any Questions and just a bit more scary. That's partly because it's television and so if you make an idiot of yourself, it's entirely VISIBLE (though it is slightly pre-recorded so if you commit libel or blasphemy, they can cut it out). And it's partly because it's a bit more hard line politically, so presumably just a bit edgier for the professional politicians on the panel.

Actually (and predictably enough you may...

Retirement parties -- and more on the trains (sorry)

In the old days, when I showed up at a retirement party, it was for someone who seemed very old -- a senior colleague whom I didn't know very well, or someone who had taught me. Now, retirement parties are for friends, who seem pretty much my age. And I find I have a quite different attitude to their style and choreography ('would I like this for me?' tends to be a question niggling at the back of my mind).

On Wednesday I went to the party for John House, who is leaving the Courtauld...

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The alibi for the trip to New York was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum. The husband is part of a team organising a Syria exhibition at the Royal Academy and wanted to look out some early Christian Syrian material and talk to the curators who might lend it (interestingly -- or horrifyingly -- it turns out that a Syrian exhibition would not be possible in the USA, as Bush's legislation about not dealing with terrorist states extends to cultural objects and projects). We also wanted to...