Madison County Canals, Roman Farming & A New Mary Beard Book

 I have been a Mary Beard fan for may be 20 years and maybe more.  Los Angeles Review of Books reviews her latest under Scatological Graffiti and Other Arts. Which points out why she is so worth reading:

Modest in size but vast in scope, Talking Classics examines both antiquity and its later impact, from the Renaissance to the 21st century. It is especially rich in anecdotes and illustrations. Beard touches on many familiar classical remnants—July and August taking their names from Roman emperors, or Freud’s Oedipus complex. But she also tries to make those distant eras seem familiar—wall scratches, or “graffiti,” in a bar in Pompeii promoting political candidates alongside obscenities and boasts about bowel movements. Next to a latrine in Herculaneum: “Apollinaris the doctor of the emperor Titus had a good shit here.” 

 

sch 10/4