Nephele

Julius22, you didn't say whether you are male or female, but I'm going to guess that you're female. You get a fanciful Roman name, meaning "Star of Venus": Venustellia (Eljuti Anves -j +l) -- Nephele

"Lemaire" may be a "public" name, but it's still a prestigious one, if my guess as to its etymology is correct. Do you know if your surname is derived from the Old French mair(e), which comes from the Latin maior, meaning greater, superior, and signifying the "best" or "chief" man of the community (much like the title "Mayor")? As for the name "Pascal"... And here I always thought it had something to do with being born at Eastertide. -- Nephele

I think that when the Church canonized their Saint Procula (who is supposed to be the unnamed individual mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew who was married to Pontius Pilate and who tried to dissuade him from crucifying Jesus), the Church "filled in" the details regarding Procula's origin. There don't seem to be any historical sources to back up the claims that Claudia Procula was (as one version of the story goes) the illegitimate daughter of Augustus' own daughter Julia, and later adopted by Tiberius upon his marriage to Julia. Perpetuating the myth of Claudia Procula is the 2006 novel titled Pilate's Wife, written by Antoinette May (famous -- or infamous, if you prefer -- for being the biographer of Sylvia Browne). I believe Tiberius had only the two wives -- Vipsania and Julia. -- Nephele

Excellent review, Augusta! I was wondering how you might compare the BBC's 1976 production of I, Claudius with Grenada's earlier, 1968, black and white production, The Caesars (written by Philip Mackie). Interestingly, the actor (Kevin Stoney) who played Tiberius' astrologer, Thrasyllus, in I, Claudius, had appeared in the earlier production, The Caesars, in the same role. -- Nephele

Thanks, PNS! Now, get the kids a dog! I should have mentioned that Columella may have gotten some of his dog names from poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C.E. - 17 C.E.), as his Alce, Lacon, and Tigris are named among the hounds of the ill-fated hunter, Actaeon, in Book III of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Perhaps Ovid's story of Actaeon's hounds was a common source for dog names for the Romans, much as literature today is a source for pet names. Just for fun, here's an alphabetical list of Actaeon's hounds, gleaned from my Penguin Classic edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses (translated by Mary M. Innes). The descriptions in parentheses aren't necessarily what the names mean, but rather are the poet's descriptive additions. Aello ("the stout runner") Agre (the "keen-scented") Agriodus ("cross-bred of a Cretan mother and a Spartan father") Alce Asbolus (the "black-haired") Canace Cyprius (brother of Lycisce) Dorceus (Arcadian breed) Dromas Harpalus ("who had a white spot in the middle of his black forehead") Harpyia ("with her two pups") Hylactor (the "shrill-barking") Hylaeus ("who had lately been gored by a wild boar") Ichnobates ("the wise" and "of the Cretan breed") Lachne (the "shaggy") Lacon ("a dog of outstanding strength") Ladon ("from Sicyon, slender-flanked") Laelaps Lebros ("cross-bred of a Cretan mother and a Spartan father") Leucon (the "white-coated") Lycisce (the "swift" and sister of Cyprius) Melampus (a Spartan breed) Melaneus Nape ("offspring of a wolf") Nebrophonus (the "strong") Oribasus (Arcadian breed) Pamphagus (Arcadian breed) Poemenis ("the shepherd dog") Pterelas ("the swift runner") Sticte Theron (the "fierce") Thous Tigris I welcome any assistance from the language mavens on this board who might be inclined to give the genders (going by the names) of Actaeon's hounds in the above list. -- Nephele

What did the ancient Romans name their four-legged best friends? Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella gives us a few recommended names in the section of his work on agriculture dealing with the rearing and training of dogs. Other likely sources used by the ancient Romans for dog names may have come from literature, in much the same way that people today draw on literature for naming their dogs. Just as many a slave with a Greek name might be found in an ancient Roman household (with Greek names either originally belonging to the slaves or names fancifully taken from history and legend and bestowed by the masters), the Romans appeared also to have taken a shine to Greek names for their dogs, as illustrated by Columella. Perhaps they thought these Greek names sounded classier? Presented here is a list of dog names in both Greek and Latin, as recorded by various Roman writers. Each name is followed by gender, meaning, cited source, and a brief, descriptive quote from that source. A

Well... When y'all are drinking and boisterously singing Roman marching songs, don't be too surprised if you should happen to look around and see a bedraggled, exhausted femina staggering into the pub, dripping water and seaweed. Because that will be ME! Set aside a pint for my dolphin, too. -- Nephele

Aw... thanks, {{{{Augusta}}}} <--- that's a cyber hug. I'll be thinking of y'all this weekend, and toasting all of YOU from one of my favorite pubs in NYC. (But I'd much rather be in York this weekend... *sigh*) Have a great time! Take lots of pictures! -- Nephele

Thanks for the tip! I've just paddled back and hitched a ride on a dolphin! York Forum Meeting, here I come! -- Nephele

LOL!!! I assume you have set off already? I'm posting (with difficulty) from a laptop held over my head, and furiously treading water as we speak! -- Nephele

Hey, thanks to Google Maps, I was finally able to get reliable directions from New York to York, England, so I can join y'all at the Forum Meeting! Except, I'm having a bit of trouble when I get to step #23... You MUST check this out -- this is too funny! 1. go to www.google.com 2. click on "maps" 3. click on "get directions" 4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box) 5. type "York, England" in the second box (the "to" box) 6. click on "get directions" 6. scroll down to step #23 -- Nephele

Very funny, Lost Warrior! And, very Onionesque, too. While I have nothing of my own to add right now, I'll instead give a link to my all-time favorite Onion "news" article that absolutely creased me up. This came out in the '90s, as the Harry Potter craze was taking over the nation and certain Christian Right groups were demanding that the books be banned from libraries because of their witchcraft theme: Harry Potter Books Spark Rise in Satanism Among Children -- Nephele

I had the pleasure of meeting Kurt Vonnegut one year at the Steinbeck Awards, an annual benefit for the Southampton College Library. I'll always remember what an erudite and gentle man he was. His passing is a sorrowful loss. -- Nephele

Originally there was no "G" or "U" in the Latin alphabet, or lower-case letters, so the earliest form of that praenomen was "CAIVS". Later when "G" was added to the alphabet, "GAIVS" became an alternate spelling, but both praenomina were still most commonly abbreviated with a "C". Same with the praenomina "CNAEVS" and "GNAEVS", with both being most commonly abbreviated with a "CN." Pronunciation had much to do with the addition of the "G" to the Latin alphabet, but that's something I'll leave to the language mavens on this board. -- Nephele

Yes, I agree. Pascal Lemaire is a lovely name. But, to me, a "lovely name" is any name I can anagram! Wheee! Pascal Lemaire = Pericles Alama "Alama" - Arabic verb meaning "to know". Bryaxis, you're an omniscient Greek statesman! -- Nephele

Thanks, A.D., for the response. Hey, have a GREAT time at the Meet-up in York! I am soooo envious! -- Nephele

Can anyone here corroborate the following about the "hyperetae" of the Library of Alexandria? From Bibliotheca Alexandria by Sameh M. Arab. MD, PhD: Also, can anyone here read Greek? A Google search on "hyperetae" turned up a few possiblities, and a likely source of information might be that fourth website given in the list -- the PDF file in Greek. What I'd like to find out is whether or not women were admitted to this class of worker at the Library of Alexandria, and were the hyperetae free citizens or slaves? Short of e-mailing Dr. Arab directly (and I can't find a contact e-mail address for him, anyway), I figured I'd roust out you guys here. Thanks in advance. -- Nephele

Por Que? I'm always afraid that commerical sites such as Google are going to trace me back to my e-mail somehow if I download anything from them, and then spam the heck out of me. I still regret ever signing up for eBay and PayPal. My old e-mail account is a mess of phishing attempts, thanks to those sites (probably eBay, mostly). You bet! Stuff like that is to me what a shiny bauble is to a raven. *Nephele stares, hypnotized, and goes "Ooo!"* Hey, Pantagathus, thanks for that Bookfinder.com link in your previous posting! I've bookmarked it! -- Nephele

C.B. Earp wrote a dissertation in 1939 for Columbia University titled: A Study of the Fragments of Three Related Plays of Accius, based on reconstruction from fragments of: Achilles, Mymidones, and Epinausimache. I am presuming (correctly, I hope) that Earp may have been working from the actual fragments of Accius' plays. You may want to pursue that road, if you're looking for information on existing fragments. Unfortunately, Columbia's participation in the downloadable Digital Dissertations program only includes full text dissertations published from 1997 onwards. You may have to contact Columbia directly, or through the interlibrary loan program of your public or university library. -- Nephele

Thanks for the suggestion, B.H.! I did notice from that Atlas link that MPC gave, that the indexed maps include Ptolemy's coordinates. If there are any techno folk reading this, what a great website you might be able to create if you could work out a way for someone to type in latitude and/or longitude coordinates and pull up ancient towns and cities for their results. I still can't seem to find anything like that on the 'net, so perhaps it would be a fairly unique thing to create. -- Nephele

Oh, yikes, Moonlapse. When I was a little kid we had an elderly neighbor lady on our block who did stuff like that. One time the ice cream van came around and all us kids went over to buy ice cream. And the elderly neighbor lady went over, too, and bought herself a cone. But when she started to lick it, the top fell off the cone and down into the gap of her blouse, between these huge, sweaty, pendulous breasts. And she reached in there, dug around a bit, and then pulled it out, and put it back on her cone. All us kids were watching, bug-eyed. The elderly neighbor lady just laughed, held out her cone to us, and said: "Wanna lick?" I covered my eyes and ran away. -- Nephele

No problem, Vesperii. Here are two more for you: Serenilla Merula (arledenalsmielr -d +u) Serenilla is a diminutive of "Serena", meaning "serene; peaceful". Merula is a cognomen meaning "blackbird". Galerina Merenda (drelaennlaaeigr -l +m) Galerina is a feminine diminutive of Galerius, the nomen of a 4th century Roman emperor. Merenda is a cognomen meaning "afternoon meal". So, which of these names do you choose? -- Nephele

Gee, thanks, Northern Neil. (Somebody poke out my mind's eye, please.) -- Nephele

Thankfully, Gems such as Penistone, Goole and Chipping Sodbury are still around, much to everyone's delight. The French town of Condom also raises a smile... but I thought you would appreciate these! You're right, I did appreciate those! But you can't beat Knob Lick, Kentucky. And, just to get back on topic... My own pet peeve... Well, that's got to be people who pick their noses in their cars. People picking their noses just about anyway is pretty bad, but when it comes to doing it in public they seem to do it more often in their cars than anywhere else. You know, you'll be driving along, and you'll come up on someone in the next lane and, OMG, there he is, picking his nose. Probably thinking that nobody is looking. But, of course, YOU are looking. You can't HELP but look. And there he is with a digit up there doing some serious spelunking. And if you're not the driver of your own car but instead you're a helpless passenger, you're thinking please, please, please, pass this guy before he pulls his finger out and you catch a glimpse of a long, sticky greenie attached to the end of his finger. DON'T LOOK, you tell yourself. But, even if you don't look, you still KNOW he's going to pull something awful out of his nose. So you've got your mind's eye torturing you, no matter what you do. The minute you inadvertently spot a nose-picker, you're basically screwed. -- Nephele

What fun! I haven't tried Google Earth, though, as I never downloaded and installed it on my computer. I'm suspicious of Google. -- Nephele