This year we launched the biggest and hardest competition in Classical philology. The judges worked through a million words of commentary. The quality was eye-wateringly strong. Here are the winners of our inaugural competition! More facts to follow soon: antigonejournal.com/2026/09/…

Two centuries ago Constantine Koliades turned his powers to proving that the true identity of Homer's poems was none other than Odysseus himself. Wild... but can you prove him wrong?

Had forgotten about Hugh Trevor-Roper's Ten Commandments for English style. From the 2nd Commandment flows all.

This one is exceptional. Thank you @exlibrisperdiem!

"Do not be afraid to say, in earnest, that you love Classics. Do not be afraid to say that it has value. You don’t need to qualify or justify." Rule 1 of Solveig Gold's Ten Rules for the 21st-Century Classicist: antigonejournal.com/2026/03/…

The Base presents an evening exploring Julius Caesar - the historical figure and Shakespeare’s play - on 16th November 2026 at the UnHerd Club in Westminster. Esteemed Latin Professor David Butterfield, now Provost of Ralston College and formerly of Cambridge University, will make the case that Julius Caesar is the historical figure and the play to make sense of our time. The evening will be an interactive exploration; a unique mixture of lecture, discussion and performance. We bring to life extracts from Shakespeare’s play and together with Professor Butterfield, see what this moment of Roman history can teach us about power and control in the 21st century. Tickets in bio.

Worth quoting: 3. “Do not engage in too much discussion about Classics.” “Just do Classics!”

You wanted book plates. I'm making bookplates. All the illuminated Gawain books will now come with full color illuminated book plates as well! kickstarter.com/projects/tam…

1/ In a recent study, Theodore M. S. Nash (University of Michigan) highlights that Mycenaean writing did not follow a uniform, strictly centralized model across the Helladic world; instead, it exhibited a strong regionalism, varying according to the respective palatial center.

Always a joy @ralstoncollege to be able to take a book off the shelves and read at leisure. Today Athanasius was taken out for a spin, in between meetings.

Can now chalk off the bucket list talking to Martin Shaw about Fugazi.

Niche formating point... BUT it is a remarkable powerplay of the Bible that individual books are cited neither in italics (as all other literary titles are) nor in roman with quotation marks (as poems are), just a casual capital: "this is the subject of Revelation".

I have taught the Iliad and the Odyssey for 20 years. The Odyssey is fun. The Iliad is profound, eternal, and sublime. It has taken me many years to come to this conclusion but every year deepens my conviction that this is the case.

The greatest poem ever written is the Iliad. There is simply no question. The only challenge for each reader, whenever and wherever, is to find their own route to seeing how and why that is the truth. (It took me 22 years from first read.)

More shades of autumn!

Qn 2 is where the gloves come off!

"The Senate eventually resolved that, in this dire emergency, the Catilinarian conspirators should be executed. The sentence was carried out immediately... The illegality of this deed was to haunt Cicero for ever." But what should Cicero have done? antigonejournal.com/2023/03/…