From my diary

It seems that I have access to L’annee epigraphique through JSTOR.  This is convenient, although searching 50 years of issues for material about Mithras may take some time.  Rather less convenient is that each issue is divided into a bunch of separate PDF’s.  This makes searching quite a bit harder, if I have to download several hundred PDF’s.  Oh rats!

I realised last night that the Loeb volume of Horace that I was reading only contained the Satires and Letters.  It turns out that there is a companion volume containing the Odes and Epodes (whatever those are).

After some thought, I decided not to buy a copy of the Niall Rudd edition, currently in print, but to purchase the older Loeb by a certain S. Bennett (if I remember the name correctly).  I confess that I find the austere classicism of the first half of the 20th century infinitely preferable to modern translations.  The softening of the obscenity present in all such works is likewise very welcome.

The flu that I was battling for two weeks over new year has returned, because of stress at work.  So I was obliged to abandon my hotel room and drive home late last night.  Life on the road is never enjoyable, and it is quite impossible unless in good health.  So today has largely been another wasted day.  I’ve been reading snippets from Aelian’s Varia Historia.  With a headache one doesn’t feel like reading much!  But gossipy books that one can dip into anywhere are always welcome.  They are, in some senses, the ancient equivalent of a modern magazine like Readers Digest.  I could use a few more!

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