Darryl A. Phillips

News reports from earlier this week note the discovery of a Roman imperial dining room from the time of Nero.  The room is perhaps the “famous” dining room described by Suetonius as being part of Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House).  This is a new discovery — adding to the extensive remains of the house that have been excavated on the Oppian Hill.  This dining room was located on the Palatine.  The entire house complex must have, in effect, spanned both hills and encircled the area that is today occupied by the Flavian Amphitheater.  Pretty impressive! 

Another dining room of Nero's

I read a review of the new film “My Life in Ruins” (from the team that gave us “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”).  Seems that the main character is an “unemployed Classics professor turned tour guide”.  Nice to see Classics is getting some exposure, but wouldn’t it be nice to have an employed Classicist featured (though this probably wouldn’t make for as compelling a story-line: grading papers, thinking up new ways to teach the Latin subjunctive, serving on College committees, etc).

Reminds me of my one week gig as a tour guide in Rome many years ago when I was an “under-employed” Classics grad student. 

I’ll wait till “My Life in Ruins” is out on dvd.  But if you’ve seen it, let me know what you thought.

I’ve been experimenting with tilt-shift photography — a technique that makes images of real sites look like pictures of models.  Here are two shots of Rome. 

Arch of Titus "Model"

House of Vestals "Model"

What do you think?  For interesting pictures of Charleston, with weekly updates, check out: http://tinycharleston.blogspot.com/