All in a Don's Day (7 page)

This post attracted more comments than any other, most berating me for being pro-Greek or anti-Greek, pro-FYROM or anti-FYROM: ′I am amazed that a professor at Cambridge can try to promote her views without any proof′; ′Mary Beard has been drinking too much
ouzo as her pro-Greek stance is quite pathetic′. And so on. A few struck a different note
:

Unless I remember wrongly, it was clearly established that the Ptolemies and the Macedonian royal family were in fact American: hence their invasion of the whole Middle East, and the large number of Philadelphias, Pellas etc. in the USA.

The point that Philip must have been Greek because of his activities at Delphi is particularly laughable: since he had established himself as the strongest military power in Greece at the time, there was little enough the other Greeks could do about it, and his keenness to gain a prominent role at the sanctuary reflects his only-dubiously-Greek status.

It′s quite alarming how many distinguished scholars are willing to sign up to this crap. However, since President Obama′s personal background combines elements from Kenya, Hawaii, Indonesia and he is nevertheless quite clearly an American, I don′t imagine he will take this ′because of what happened in the fourth century
BC
′ model of ethnicity very seriously.

RICHARD

Alexander′s father was a snake (Plut.
Alex
. ii,4; Justin xi.11.3; Q.Curt. I)

PL

The contrast between the impressive list of names and the buffoonishness of the sentiments expressed therein is indeed striking. This is a question of contemporary politonymy, and none of the signatories seems to have addressed the question from this point of view, assuming wrongly as they do that their Alexanderological expertise gives them authority to pontificate on modern geopolitics. But the problem is not ′was Alexander a
Slav?′ or ′were ancient Macedonians Greeks?′, but ′how are modern state names authorized?′ Are there other cases of states assuming a name previously given to a province of another country? And the answer is yes. Luxembourg is the name both of a province of Belgium and an independent state, Moldova a region of Romania and a contiguous independent republic. Nobody has any problem figuring that an older region turned into two units.

SW FOSKA

5 July 2009

Last week it was reported that the drivers on the Piccadilly line would be adding some well-chosen quotes to their announcements on the underground: ‘Hell is other people', ‘Beauty will save the world' and other appropriate thoughts for a commuting journey.

Surely, with Boris Johnson as mayor, there ought to be some real Latin among the anglophone platitudes. Indeed, a surprising number of the best-known Latin quotes turn out to be surprisingly appropriate for the journey to work. In no particular order:

1. ‘
perfer et obdura! dolor hic tibi proderit olim
' – or ‘Be patient and put up with it; one day this pain will pay dividends.' That's Ovid (
Amores
III, XIa) reflecting on the insults of his mistress – but fits well enough for the rush-hour commute.

2. ‘
quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra
' – or ‘How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?'. The famous first line of Cicero's first speech against Catiline, attacking the would-be revolutionary (or innocent stooge) Catiline. But you can substitute any adversary for Catiline. ‘quousque tandem abutere, Boris, patientia nostra?'

3. ‘
arma virumque cano
' – or ‘Arms and the man I sing'. The most famous line in the whole of Latin poetry, the first line of the first book of Virgil's
Aeneid
. Though Virgil didn't exactly mean the arms of the man digging into your side,
as you're stuck in the tunnel between Covent Garden and Leicester Square.

4. ‘
amantium irae amoris integratio est
' – or ‘Lovers' quarrels are the renewal of love' (that's from Terence's comedy
The Woman of Andros
, 555). Something to cheer you up after a bad night.

5. ‘
medio tutissimus ibis
' – or ‘You'll go safest in the middle', from Ovid,
Metamorphoses
II, 137. Advice to Phaethon, who was about – disastrously – to drive the chariot of the sun. Probably not much better advice on the underground.

6. ‘
audacibus annue coeptis
' – or ‘Look with favour on a bold start' (as in Virgil,
Georgics
1, 40). You could translate as – make for the tube door first, and don't worry about the elderly, disabled or women with buggies.

7. ‘
nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanus
' – or ‘No one dances sober, unless maybe he's mad' (Cicero,
Pro Murena
6, 13). More memories of last night.

8. ‘
nil desperandum
' – or ‘don't despair about anything' (Horace,
Odes
I, 7, 27). Self-explanatory for the rush-hour journey, but hard advice to follow.

9. Better perhaps would be ‘
nunc est bibendum
' – or ‘Now is the time to drink' (Horace,
Odes
I, 37, 1 – in the original celebrating the death of Cleopatra).

10. ‘
capax imperii nisi imperavisset
' – or ‘capable of ruling if he hadn't ruled' (or roughly, ‘he had a great future behind him'). This is what Tacitus had to say of the emperor Galba after his speedy assassination.

Too soon to tell if Boris has a great future behind him!

More Virgil: The encouraging ′
Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit
′ – ′Perhaps even all this will one day be a happy memory′ (Aeneas cheering up his companions after their shipwreck on a forbidding coast). Or ′
Hic labor, hic opus est
′ – ′This the labour, here the work to be achieved′ (the Cumaean Sibyl telling Aeneas that it′s the coming back alive from the world of the dead, not the going down there, that is the hard part).

PL

For those who have to use the Northern line:
′
Nox est perpetua una dormienda
′… (Catullus)
[′An eternal night – all you can do is sleep through it′]

ANNA

It would be enough if the announcements were intelligible. I was once on the tube with a French person whose English was quite good and I persuaded him, the French being gullible, that the announcement that had just been made was in Hungarian and was an example of London Transport′s commitment to multiculturalism.

MICHAEL BULLEY

How about ′
cave hiatum
′ – mind the gap!

ANDYC

′
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo
′. Horace. I′m surprised no one else has come up with this. ′I hate the common mob and keep them at arm′s length′.

MICHAEL BENNETT

Why is that the subject of Latin brings out the Radio 4 in people?

ANTHONY ALCOCK

There′s the old anecdote of a graffiti written when Boston Latin High School was closed because a severe snowstorm had closed the subway. ′Sick Transit. Glorious Monday!′

NICK NUSSBAUM

20 July 2009

Anyone who has been involved in academic job interviews and selection – especially for early career posts – knows how important the references are. The candidates in question probably have very few publications that you can read; you need a supportive but honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses from someone who knows them.

Anyone who has
recently
been involved will also know how difficult it is to get a supportive but honest assessment. The current rhetoric is of unadulterated praise, sometimes (I fear) laughably dishonest. It's worse among American referees, but the Brits are fast catching up. In writing the instructions to referees for our college research fellowship competition a few years ago, I added some phrase to the effect of ‘an unadulterated eulogy will not help your candidate'. I can't say that it had much effect among the persistent offenders.

I always vow to write to these with a few simple queries. ‘Could you please compare Dr Y, whom you rate this year as ‘the most brilliant student you have ever taught', with Dr Z, of whom you said the same last year. It would help the committee to know which in your view was absolutely
the
most brilliant.' But I never quite get round to it.

Anyway, clearing out my study, I found some references for a Cambridge job, advertised and appointed well over 20 years ago.

They were both better and worse than their modern equivalent.

As they are so old, and as some of the candidates – let alone the referees – are long dead, I think it is OK to give you some anonymised quotes from these. (I have changed anything that could possibly, even at this distance, lead to identification – including gender.)

For a start, what was worse than now?

That's simple: the sexism. For almost every married woman in the pack, the referee felt bound to say that she was ‘happily married' (how did they know – and would we have looked worse on an imminent divorcee, anyway?), and that the husband was very happy for his wife to have a job. A few launched into the childcare arrangements, while suggesting that we would obviously want to talk more about this at the interview. Thank God that's now illegal.

But these references were mostly a lot more helpful than today's; they were prepared to talk about the weaknesses of the candidates and occasionally ventured a joke or two.

Try this for an alert to a weakness: ‘First a criticism. Repetitiveness – no, rather verbosity. On a random sample of pages I thought that I could cut about 10% merely by verbal pruning. But X is well aware of this and is at the moment practising a little discipline.'

Or this for a comment on the candidate's match to the job description: ‘He is not the first person that I would have thought of for this particular post … although he would be competent to discharge it.'

Or this: ‘I do not think he has done much, if any, teaching, and I suspect he is not particularly gifted as a teacher. I have found him rather diffident and unforthcoming in conversation. I would advise an interviewing committee, and
I believe he deserves to be interviewed, to concentrate its attention on this area.'

Or this for a warning note: ‘As an undergraduate she showed a tendency to indulge a taste for slightly eccentric philological speculation. I have no doubt … that this tendency is now well under control.'

Then again, try this for a compliment: ‘I've never had any reason to suspect him of bluff or one-upmanship even in the sort of conversation where relatively sober scholars are liable to overbid their hands.'

Or this: ‘If he were a bit flashier at interview, he would have got some kind of job by now, I feel.'

And how about this for support, but not yet: ‘She sometimes has so many ideas at once, that she is not quite sure which to talk about first … I am convinced that she will be successful soon when she applies for a research fellowship. I am not at all sure that she should at this stage of her career take a teaching post.'

True, you might say that all this was old school prejudice, or unsupported assertion, or self-promoting cleverness on the part of the referee. But compared to the sewers of praise you find now, it was jolly helpful.

The Chichele Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford in the 1980s sent a handwritten reference for a friend applying for posts in the USA. It read in full: ′He is a sound man.′ It did not result in any interviews. The Chichele Professor rightly admired my friend′s work.

I am sorry that Mary believes that anonymity is a virtue in these stories.

QH FLACK

′He is a sound man′. Perhaps the Americans thought that ′he′ worked in a recording studio.

ANTHONY ALCOCK

It occurs to me, Mary, that, in fact, you are breaching the Data Protection Act by retaining information relating to candidates long after a reasonable length of time has elapsed from the date of the recruitment exercise.

Pedant heaven, here.

JANE

Jane. Is that so – given that these documents had no electronic form and so are not and never have been ′data′ within the terms of the act?? If it WERE the case, I would count it another reason to feel suspicious of the act (or the way it is applied).

MARY BEARD

The data doesn′t have to be in electronic form. It can be part of ′a relevant filing system′ defined as data held ′in such a way that specific information relating to a particular individual is readily accessible′. Pedant heaven, as Jane says! But as far as I understand it, it′s not illegal to retain the data, so long as the ′data subject′ has access to it.

SW FOSKA

On data protection, I′m OK then. To be lingering in the bottom of an old box in a carrier bag, in which they must have been carried to and from the shortlisting meeting … doesn′t really count as ′a relevant filing system′!

And they are in the process of destruction. But where does this leave proper scholarly archiving of what will be historic documents?

MARY BEARD

Steven Pinker suggests that the perfect negative reference would read: ′X is very punctual and has a charming wife.′

CSRSTER

3 August 2009

Almost every newspaper in the UK today had a story about the failings of universities. A parliamentary inquiry, they said, had branded British universities as complacent, unwilling to justify their standards to outside scrutiny, unable to justify the fact that (e.g.) the proportion of firsts had risen significantly in the last decade or so.

As usual, if you actually look at the original report from which all this comes (not just the press release), the story is rather different. In this case, it is both better and worse than the newspaper reports make out.