8th November 2025
It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post here! I have slowly been adding stuff to the website though, and there's a lot more coming along with this post.
So firstly, I have finally finished the Res Gestae! It took me way longer than it should have to get through it all, so I'm glad it's over, and I can move onto something else now. In terms of its language, it's not the most interesting text - a lot of it is just lists for instance - but that makes it quite easy to read, and its content is quite interesting. This is (or at least purports to be) a first-hand account of a very famous period of history, by the main character - Augustus. It's also really interesting to see what he seems to find important, and what he doesn't. For instance, the entire affair with Cleopatra VII and Egypt, a series of events that have inspired countless stories and works of art, and been studied in great detail, he sums up as:
Aegyptum imperio populi Romani adieci.
(Section 27)
There's a lot of titles and terms throughout the text that probably don't mean much to most people - they don't mean much to me. I have added brief explanations for some of these, but not all. And finally, I translated many terms that it seems common to keep in Latin into English, in an attempt to make the text clearer. Enjoy!
Next, I have also started translating book X of the Aeneid! Why book X? Because I joined a reading group recently, and that's what they're on. Which is also why my translation starts on line 215, rather than, you know, 1. I'm just going to be trying to keep up with what we're reading, so hopefully there'll be a bit added each week. In theory, this should not take that much time though, so I'll also be trying to spend some time on a piece of prose as well. I haven't decided which yet - Caesar? Livy?
And finally, this isn't on the website yet, because there's still too much missing, but I've been working on a grammar reference for Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs! At some point in the future, I will also have some translations up, but for now, this is just a useful way for me to organise and access my notes, plus it might be interesting to other people as well. I am also studying ancient Greek regularly now, so grammar for that will also be up at some point, although I haven't made a start on that yet.
And I think that's all for now, hopefully there'll be a lot more up on here soon!