#pliny

[character-of-all-time]

ROUND 1: PLINY THE ELDER (real) VS DWIGHT SCHRUTE (the office)

[calam1typann3]

NAH THIS KINDA EDITING IS SO GOOFY I LOVE IT LOL

[thehyperfixationcorner]

Should I just make a thread of every time they seem gay with each other because no joke they keep sharing these soft looks every damn episode

[latin-literature-tourney]

Welcome to Round 2 of the Latin Literature Tournament!

Selections are based on my university's Latin reading list, with a couple names added to round it out to 32 contestants. So unfortunately, not every author managed to make the cut--I'm sorry to all three of my fellow Silius Italicus fans :(

I'm accepting propaganda for any of the competitors! Drop your arguments, panegyrics, hot takes, and trash talk in an ask!

Polls for Round 2 are up and will be open for a week! All reblogs are greatly appreciated!

[mascula-sappho]

Imagine if we diagnosed people with certain Roman or Greek writers as medicine:

me: depressed and worrying about the future, anxious all the time *diagnosed with a need for Horace*

someone: dealing with internalized homophobia *diagnosed with a need for Sappho*

creationist: *diagnosed with a need for Pliny the Elder*

someone who believes in toxic purity culture: *diagnosed with Ovid in copious amounts*

Etc.

[greekmythcomix]

Pliny the Elder creating his D&D character background:

[coolchevistianofficialsite]

StuGo - Titmouse Inc. and Disney Television Animation (2024) Created by Ryan Gillis

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Hoc sit negotium tuum hoc otium; hic labor haec quies; in his vigilia, in his etiam somnus reponatur

- Pliny

Let this be your business, let this be your leisure; let this be both your work and your rest.

[same-pic-rick-roll]

Ancient greek tentacle porn was not on my 2025 bingo sheet

I was asking chatpgt some questions about Greek history, and it brought uo some quotes from Aristottles. about octopi.

I got curious, and asked more on Greek understandibg of octopi.

“There is a sect of Poseidon in Sparta that revere the octopus. They often engage it in sexual intercourse.”

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 42.

Citation formatted by chatgpt  5.0. Its a really great tool, check it out here.

[candle-1-1-shine]

Quote of the Day

“The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuit, whether is our power to compass or not, are only amusements”

Pliny

[flum3n]

according to pliny, the first terracotta statue was invented by a greek potter called boutades of sikyon who made a lifesize sculpture of his daughter's boyfriend because she was so upset he had to part from her.

from one perspective, this is an adorable account of innovation inspired by the desire to soothe a loved one's pain.

from another, the first body pillow.

[calam1typann3]

CHIP IS LITERALLY JUST RADICLES FROM OK KO LMFAOAOOOO

[russellmoreton]

Maternal Body : Clay Impression and Fragmented Form by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: Auguries into the maternal body. Un-fired clay and silica sand. Constructed in-situ at the Yard, Winchester. A life-size record and memory of a human presence as a site for mutual introspection. Inspired in part from the novel " The Children of Men " by P D James. Artist Statement/Chapel Arts Residency Practitioner using the creative receptiveness of material together with the inclusion of drawing to harbour transits and passages of human presence, vulnerabilities centred around the human condition. My work adopts strategies which articulate a sense of absence and anonymity within the abandonment of the work to its location. I feel drawn to this registering of passage, encounter together with its farewell. The choice of materials gathered together implies a personal geography, with both an emotional and aesthetic sense of locality and place. The performative recording by physical means which renders itself as a trace of human presence, now becomes a vacant territory open for the consideration of others. My work continues to investigate this sense of material response with the performative trace of a human absences. The place-ment of these acts attempts to promote thresholds from which to reflect upon spatial, sociological and psychological conditions and perceptions. Currently working in clay, low fired to produce and promote a fragile vessel. This vessel is installed to act as a dwelling presence reverberating in a resting place. from which work is drawn into the human form to register a surface of absences resulting from past gestures and solitudes. Russell Moreton a visual artist uses simple gestures of drawn Human traces gathered and presented amongst natural materials. Exploring themes around the Human condition, vulnerability and abandonment. Materials are employed to further underpin our sense of place and time. The act and gesture of drawing adds a ephemeral mark amongst the materiality and locality of place. Currently using clay to register these themes, installing work Augury Vessel into Chapel Arts as part of their research residency programme.

[madebypointlesswords]

Rating all the Latin authors I've read in the past two years in honor of my oral Latin exam tomorrow

Caesar (De Bello Gallico)

This is a weird one because while his prose isn't extremely difficult, it was also the first unedited work I read, so for lil 15-year-old me, this was very difficult. But I learned a lot from Caesar (especially that he made it an art to making his sentences as long as possible. We read an entire 200 words, and IT WAS JUST ONE SENTENCE.), and the sense of nostalgia while rereading it is very pleasant, so I will give you a solid 6/10

Pliny the Younger (Epistulae)

Mixed feelings about this one again. This could also be just because I despise prose. I really do not like it at all. Pliny's epistulae were pretty okay. I liked them a little better than Caesar's because of their variety (for those that don't know, epistulae means letters). His letter about the Vesuvius was a lot of fun to translate, even with all the hyperbata, but his letters about or to his third wife were very uncomfortable. Like, I get things were different back then. BUT YOU WERE 45, PLINY. 45. SHE WAS WHAT? 14? 15 TOPS? MY GOD. THAT'S A BIGGER AGE DIFFERENCE THAN I HAVE WITH MY FATHER.

7/10

Ovid (Metamorphoses)

Ovid is life Ovid is love. He was the one who introduced me to Latin poetry, and I will always love him for it. He was an icon and a legend. The poems of his that we read (Daedalus & Icarus, Latona and the Lycian peasants, Diana and Actaeon) were all bangers, and I love them all to death. I never wanted to go back to reading prose after this (but unfortunately, I will have to next year. ew)

11/10 (I love you, Ovid)

Vergil (The Aeneid)

*deep sigh* Listen. I love his complex works, and I have great respect for this poem but by the GODS. Vergil's poetry is the most difficult I've had to translate by a long shot. He made me rethink my entire career in Latin. I have considered quitting so many times because of this man. I felt like a complete idiot most of the time. This is not a guy to fuck with. Luckily I got through it on my finals (barely.) but Christ alive this man made my life difficult.

5/10

Horatius (Satires and Odes)

Horatius will always have a special place in my heart. We read his poetry right after Vergil's, and it almost completely restored my faith in my abilities. He's just my little guy and I have fond memories of translating his works. We still know many Latin phrases that he wrote (Carpe Diem being the most famous. Hello, DPS fandom). Also, he and Vergil were most definitely in love. I don't make the rules. I have evidence if you want me to elaborate.

9/10

Catullus (love poems)

Ah, Catullus. Horny poet of the year. Had a wild affair with an older married woman. Nepotism baby. Sappho stan. Didn't know how to budget, but we aren't holding that against him. Just wanted to write poetry and dance (who doesn't, honestly). Gave fuck-all about education. Wrote nearly all of his poetry about the older woman he had an affair with. Might I add that this woman was married to one of his father's bestest buddies? Yeah. Icon. Here's a kid's choice award.

8/10

Martialis (Epigrams)

This dude had ZERO chill. Roasted everyone in the city. Literally, no one is safe. Wasn't afraid to call people out by their real names. Some people allegedly committed suicide after being roasted by this guy. Translating his epigrams gave me more joy than hearing we had seen the end of Vergil. His humour may be a little silly now, but I will not accept any Martialis slander on my blog.

10/10

And that is all folks

[latin-literature-tourney]

Latin Literature Tournament - Round 1

Propaganda under the cut!

Pliny Propaganda:

His description of Vesuvius is so fucking cool and important, you guys. It's so cool that "Plinian eruptions" are a thing in volcanology

He writes some neat descriptions of gardens and private horticulture, so he's an important source on Roman aesthetics of domestic design

His letters really are bangers. I love his friendship with Tacitus, and the ghost stories are so fucking fun

Juvenal Propaganda:

I love reading and fighting Juvenal. He is such an asshole and so full of shit (and his poems really are a blast)

That said the man sure can turn a phrase. Bread and circuses, anyone?

Is that a farrago in your libellus or are you just happy to see me

[duxfemina]

"why, this is violence!"

Is the most understated response to your homies stabbing you at a meeting of the Senate