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Loose but enjoyable translation of Martial V.20 by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) which the famous Scottish author and poet entitled Ad Martialem
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Not really a translation but a paraphrase... but you the gist..

In this 1892 poem by Scottish classicist and historian Andrew Lang verses 3 to 5 are a transaltion of Martial V.20.

CGI-reconstrucion of an atrium (plural atria) in a wealthy Roman house. Note the statues and busts.

This is where the owner and master of the house would meet and greet his clients every morning.

Wealthy Romans traditionally had wax busts (shoulders and head) of their ancestors on display in the atrium of their houses, and they would be paraded to the cemetries and back on the anniversaries of their deaths.

This marble statue (with a modern head) depicts a Roman's pride in his genealogical tree. In the Montemartini branch of the Capitoline Museum, Rome.

This famous aqueduct originally finished near the Pantheon in the Campus Martius where it supplied water to Agrippa's baths, but today it finishes slightly short of there emerging out of the 18th-century Trevi Fountain.
Some of its arches are still preserved; and here's a rare picture of its water-filled interior.

Got time on your hands, as Martial wishes? Then try and locate the aqueduct on this model of Rome. Clue: the Pantheon is at the bottom right, and the aqueduct runs horizontally across the image. Here's another view of the model, showing the Pantheon and in the centre the smaller domed building of Agrippa's Baths. The arches of Aqua Virgo can be seen at top right.

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A recital in Latin of the Anthology passage (Horace, Epode II, lines 1-8, 23-28).

Excellent version of the whole poem (Epode II) that stays faithful to Horace's words; hosted by the Horace's Villa Project website.

The Anthology extract comprises lines 1-8 and 23-28; so if you read the whole original poem you'll find a twist in the tale!

Amusing loose translation of the whole of Epode II by American journalist and radio personality Franklin P. Adams (1881-1960).

Translation by Tony Kline

The Anthology extract comprises lines 1-8 and 23-28; so if you read the whole original poem you'll find a twist in the tale!

An old and poetic translation in rhyming couplets by John Dryden (1631–1700)

The usual name for this war-trumpet is buccina.

Everything you wanted to know about this tree...

Horace's mention of springs so soon after that of the ilex may imply that he's thinking again of his fons Bandusiae, the spring on his farm which he famously eulogises in Ode 3.13 - see the Anthology's A Country Spring.
This photo shows the so-called "Nymphaeum of the Orsini", next to Horace's villa in Licenza and, despite some Renaissance alterations, it seems to many to be the poet's much-loved Bandusiaan Spring.

At Licenza some 35 miles north-east of Rome in gorgeous countryside.

Mosaic depicting a Roman country house in north Africa.

Here's an idea of the size of the mosaic.
In the Bardo Museum, Tunisia.

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Latin recital of Catullus, Poem 50.

Check to see if it's available in this index...

Good, literal translation of Catullus 50 by Tony Kline, 2001.

A 1998 modern translation of Catullus 50 by Yi Shy. It's a bit too literal in places, and omits key words in others. But it gives a gist of this poem the tone of which is tricky to get right.

This friend of Catullus is also mentioned in Poems 14, 53 and 96.

Modern reconstruction of a typical Roman wax-tablet "book" with three "pens" used for scarping words into the soft black/brown wax.

Reconstruction of a Roman bed in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA.

Day-beds/couches could sometimes have been used for a snooze, but this one may have been a bit small for a fully-stretched-out, comfortable night's sleep! Its ornamentation may have meant that it was a show-piece for the tablinum or atrium...
In the Met.Museum, New York.

This Classical goddess of retribution is given a full treatment on this Wikipedia webpage.

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Recited in Latin, this reading of Catullus Poem 13 is how it would have been heard 2000 years ago.

Good literal translation of Catullus Poem 13, although line 10's seu quid has a typo: "or anything" shoud read "of anything".

Slightly freer versiony by Tony Kline.

And a third English version.

A friend of Catullus, otherwise unknown. This link in turn links to the three other Catullus poems where he's mentioned.

Roman wall-painting from the so-called Villa Julia (aka Villa of the Farnesina) in Rome, discovered in 1879, partly excavated, and then covered over again! Now in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme branch of the National Museum, Rome.

Roman fresco depicting cupids making,and Psyche smelling, perfume.
Provenance unknown, but undoubtedly Pompeii and its region; now in the Getty Museum, malibu, USA.

A similar fresco, but this one is still in situ in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii.

One of the more famous statues of both Venus (Greek Aphrodite) and her son cupid (Greek Eros), this was first sculpted by Doedalsas in the 200's BC and later much copied by the Romans. This is one such copy, discovered in Rome, and now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Take that! Both Venus and Cupid are trying to ward off goat-legged Pan. Here's a close-up. Found on the Greek island of Delos and dating to c.100 BC, it's now in the National Museum, Athens.

Mid-19th-century sculpture by English artist Benjamin Spence. In the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Roman fresco still on the wall in the "House of Venus in the Shell" at Pompeii, possibly depicting the sea-birth of the goddess Venus. Here she's attended by two cupids.

Venus reclines on her lover Mars, god of war, while their sons Cupid (desire)and Phobos (fear) play with the weapons. Roman fresco from the House of Mars and Venus, Pompeii; now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Famous painting of 1635 by Nicolas Poussin depicting the Birth of Venus. Use the zoom feature to take a close look at the numerous, flying cupids.

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A close, modern translation by Tony Kline; but he's prefered to use "tiered theater" to the more literal "curved theaters".

Freer translation by J. Lewis May (1930). You need to scroll down to p.100 after clicking this link to be near where the Anthology extract starts.

Fantastic cgi reconstruction of the Theater of Pompey in Rome - typical of the majority of Roman theaters.

The industriousness of ants in gathering their food was proverbial in Roman times...
Here is a video of ants gathering food. What do you think of the use of this image as a metaphor? Is it a good comparison?

Virgil (Aeneid IV. 401-417) compares Aeneas and his band of Trojans to ants as they busy themselves to leave the shores of Carthage.
Translation by Tony Kline.

Ovid in his Metamorphoses (VII.624-5) tells the story of busy ants transformed into men.
Translation by Tony Kline.

Ovid, in exile, compares his sorry state without friends to an empty granary. Tristia I.9.9 - translation by Tony Kline.

Horace (Satires I.1.32-5) even gets in on the ant scene...

Like ants, the social behaviour of bees was famed in antiquity and referred to often by Roman poets. Unlike ants, bees were kept for the important food they made - honey!

Virgil uses a famous bee simile in his Aeneid I. 418-429 in relation to the Carthaginians building their new city.
Translation by Tony Kline.

Horace in Odes IV.2.lines 29-32 regards himself as a bee toiling away...

Virgil also wrote a whole book on bee-keeping - Book IV of his Georgics.

This photo gives a good idea of what it was like in a Roman theater on performance day. In fact, this photo is of an opera at Verona amphitheater (so originally used for gladiator fights), but the idea is similar. The expensive seats are in the arena itself and the cheapies are on the steps; in Roman theaters the flat ground near the stage was reserved for senators, while the steps were for those of lesser social standing.

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The Anthology extract comes from a Ovid's Fasti (Bk III, lines 523-540), a large, unifinished poem about the Roman year and it's festivals. This modern, literal translation is by Tony Kline.

Ovid's Fasti is a good read, full of mythological stories and facts about Roman customs. Dip in and out of Penguin's lively translation.

A Roman fresco from a columbarium (burial chamber) in the grounds of Villa Pamphili in Rome portraying revellers.

Now in the British Museum.
See also this other fresco from a columbarium found in Rome.
Now in the Museo Nazionale Romano.

Straightforward Wikipedia entry that summarises much of Ovid's lines in Fast.

More substantive article on Anna Perenna.

In 1999 in Rome, workmen digging the foundations of a new parking garage under the Piazza Euclid, a spot near the ancient Via Flaminia nearly 2 miles north of Roman Forum, uncovered a Roman fountain. The 2nd-century AD dedication pictured in this link reveals that the fountain was rebuilt and sacred to “to the nymphs of Anna Perenna." This is where those drunken revels of 15th March took place!

Here's a Google photo/map showing its location; zoom out to place in context.
Italian website with more information including pictures and visiting hours.

Glastonbury - the mother of all camping-out festivals! I bet it didn't rain as much at Anna Perenna's festival!

A map showing the course of the River Tiber from its source at Monte Fumaiolo in the Apennine Mountains, some 300 miles north of Rome, a spot marked by this commemoratative pillar.

Click for more info on the River Tiber.

King of Pylos in Greece, Nestor was famed for his great age. Best known through Homer's Iliad, he was the oldest and wisest of all the Greek kings. This photo is from the movie Troy, and shows Nestor (John Shrapnel) in the centre between Odysseus (Sean Bean) and Tecton(?) (Mark Lewis Jones).

Sybil was the name given to a prophetess who under divine guidance, usually from Apollo, uttered oracles, which foretold future events.

The Cumaean Sibyl at Cumae near Naples in Italy was infamous due to her excessive old-age; having been granted immortality by her lover Apollo, she forgot to ask for perpetual youth - and so she lived and lived and lived, shrinking into withered old age.

This image is from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican painted by Michelangelo in 1510.

The Roman writer Petronius (died AD 66) wrote some famous lines about the Sibyl in his novel Satyricon - you can see them in this link. In 1922 the poet T.S.Eliott used them as the epigraph at the start of his famous work The Waste Land.

Famous painting entitled "The Bacchanal of the Andrians" painted by Titan, 1523-25. Now in the Prado Museum, Madrid.

Painting "The Dance" by Matisse. 1910; in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Tipsy dancing in modern times in the worship of Football!