Al Duncan

PS. Thanks for making your perspective available to others. Nobody knows the role like you (and maybe Jerzy!)

Jim, I've always loved your continued sense of ownership of past jobs (Holy Cross, Wesleyan, etc.).

FWIW, you'll always be *my* Paddison Professor of Latin, even as I'm excited to welcome (another) new colleague.

***(Did I mention I'm not on the search committee?)

I'm not on the search committee and don't have/can't give any inside information, but I'd be happy to field any general questions about the lovely NC Research riangle area, campus culture, etc. I encourage every Latinist who thinks they might fit the description to apply!***

I recognize this is an uncertain moment in higher education, and perhaps especially at American public institutions. But this post (most recently filled by the inimitable Jim O'Hara, who remains in the area as emeritus) is special and worth considering.

Our faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in the department of Classics are all top-notch. I'm frequently in awe of my colleagues working in other disciplines as well: History, English/CompLit, Religious Studies, Romance Studies, and Asian Studies, just to name a few...

UNC Chapel Hill was just ranked the #4 public university by US News and World Report and, while one might (rightly) disparage the metrics (and even the premise) of such rankings, this does reflect and inform the general high regard UNC enjoys.

All official details in the link above. But I'd add here that we're a highly collegial, dynamic, and (to be candid) very hard-working department with an illustrious history and we hope, even now, a still brighter future.

It's official! UNC Classics is hiring for the Paddison Professor of Latin: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/306...

Wish I had bumped into you on UNC's campus. As an alum and faculty member of each, respectively, I 100% agree with your (well, @karaswisher.bsky.social's) observation at @pivotpod.bsky.social that @umich.edu and UNC Chapel Hill have the happiest, most committed alumni. Go Blue(s)!

The argument Musk is making here resembles that published in a peer reviewed journal by a PhD who has given interviews to notorious white supremacist publications. It's so bad the journal published a rebuttal in the same issue. I wrote about it for Pharos: pharos.vassarspaces.net/2020/10/30/p...

🔥 📝 FOLKS — I'm working on a piece for Slate about the NEH cuts. If you've been affected in ANY way and would be willing to talk with me, please message me! I would love to learn more and include your story. katina [at] katinarogers [dot] com

#humanities #neh #education #highered

This is, obviously, not the most pressing economic/social issue of April 2025. The pay of academic staff and non-tenure faculty remains the a higher moral imperative. Still, for those of us fortunate enough to have T-T/tenured posts, it is worth keeping dwindling pay in mind...

"...winging it based on their own gut feelings" – *snort*

It was a great (and timely) paper!

At the AIA/SCS in Philly and looking for something exciting, new, artistic, tonight? Come to the CAMP performance of Ellen McLaughlin's Conversations at the Return of Spring tonight (Friday, 1/3) at 8:00pm in Independence 3! No tickets required; seating is limited.

Seeing how this film will be received (and, inevitably, appropriated) will be fascinating.

I haven't seen the film yet — I've been torn about whether it's something to watch with my almost 10-year-old son — but look forward to weighing in on this issue. To note now: gender norms are always at issue in (embodied) sport, which crystallizes so many cultural beliefs, stated or otherwise.

This week I've been playing up the spectacle/gladiatorial angle (which pertains to my teaching and, more tangentially, research), but do check out this thread by the wonderful @bretdevereaux.bsky.social on the political/personal representation of the Severans.

But ethnic affiliations seem to have meant little, in practice. I

"What we do in life echoes in eternity" indeed!

But far more important than whatever ethnic distinctions we might glean from the names is the fraternity felt between Victor and Polyneikes, and the duty felt and fulfilled by Claudius Thallus as executor of the deceased Victor's estate.

Again, we see the multi-ethnic, almost cosmopolitan nature of Roman sport. Latin Victor (literally, "Winner") speaks to the Roman origins of the sport, despite the fighter's northern Aegean origin. Pinnas and Polyneikes ("Much-victoried") skew Greek, but Claudius Thallus is Romano-Greek

"I, Victor, left-handed, lie here, but my homeland was Thessalonica. Doom killed me, not the liar Pinnas. No longer let him boast. I had a fellow gladiator, Polyneikes, who killed Pinnas and avenged me. Claudius Thallus set up this memorial from what I left behind as a legacy."

In this funerary inscription (#34 in Louis Roberts' magisterial Gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec, 1940), we get a personal (and darkly funny) picture of how these rivalries and friendships could play out against the backdrop of real violence in the arena. The translation is from Cary's Loeb:

Trained in specialized barracks (known as "ludi," a term that ironically reflects the "playful" nature of Roman bloodsport), gladiators, their trainers (doctores), and even their bosses (lanistae) often considered themselves part of one big "family" (familia).

Gladiators were just most visible the "tip of the iceberg" when it came to personnel that supported the spectacles of the Roman arena.

Like so many of blockbuster sword and sandal epics across the years — including, of course, Gladiator (I), but also Ben-Hur, etc. — revenge is at the core of the narrative, as is the camarderie that can develop among gladiators and their trainers.

So, before I take my almost 10-year-old tomorrow, I thought I'd weigh in with one more favorite piece of evidence for real gladiators' lives, triumphs, and tragedies in the ancient Mediterranean.

Only one more day until Gladiator II (and, this high-school theater kid is glad to note, Wicked!) hits the big screen across the US.