As the Treasurer reports elsewhere, our financial position, despite another loss, in a year when we “invested” in accommodation for speakers from further afield, through the Horton Fund, and received more support from associated Societies, remained much the same as last year. We have had a slight drop in our membership numbers, with about 50 paid up members. We were as usual fortunate in continuing to attract engaging and interesting speakers.
In the Autumn we opened in late October with a Lecture at Stoke 6th Form College by Hannah Cornwell (Birmingham) on Augustan Rome (attendance 39, 29 of them students, with a further 10 on Live Stream, & You Tube so far 110 views). This was followed 4 days later with a presentation on Roman Newcastle, by Barrie Collinson at Apedale (attendance 13). In November, in a Joint Meeting with the local Branch of the Western Front Association, Angie Hobbs (Sheffield) gave a Lecture on Classical Heroism and World War I (attendance 16, 10 on Stream, You Tube so far 90 views). In mid December, again at Keele, we had a Joint Meeting with both the Potteries Theological Society and the Roman Society on Is Nero in the Bible?, by Shushma Malik (Cambridge), (attendance 12 and 11, and You Tube to date 114 views).
We resumed in February with a talk by Jane Masseglia (Leicester) on Ancient Greece's Next Top Model – i.e. forms of statuary (attendance 12 and 12, at Jane's request not published on You Tube). This was the Hellenic Society Joint Meeting. In late March we had our only Play Reading this year, Plautus' Menaechmi (Twin Brothers), (attendance 5). Finally we had a Lecture on Zoom only by Kurt Lampe (Bristol), on Epicurus for Today, (attendance 10 online, 51 You Tube views to date).
We are grateful to the College, the Apedale Heritage Centre and Keele SCR for the free use of the rooms for these meetings.
We did not attempt to hold a day trip this year, after the problems with numbers in recent years.
Peter Hulse, who has taken over as co-ordinator, reports that "The Reading Groups have met regularly. There are five members in the Latin group. We have mainly been reading the Venerable Bede, but we've just started on some of Horace's Odes. There have been valuable and lively contributions from all members of the group.
The same goes for the Greek group. Two regular attenders, together with a busy young PhD student from Nottingham University, who gave us a mini-paper on her specialist author (Quintus Smynaeus!). We've generally been following in Xenophon's footsteps, but went on a short excursion to ancient Alexandria to try some of the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius.
It's been an absolute pleasure to take over from Nigel. Totally impossible to fill his shoes!"The lecture was Live Streamed and is now available on our You Tube Channel.
The lecture was Live Streamed and is now available on our You Tube Channel.
The lecture was Live Streamed and is now available on our You Tube Channel.
The lecture was Live Streamed on http://tiny.cc/CAlivestream, but at our speaker's request has not afterwards been made available on our You Tube Channel.
The Roman Theatre at Orange.
Texts will be available, & details will be advised near the date.
This Lecture was live streamed on Zoom only and is now available on our You Tube Channel.
Latin The Latin Reading Group also meets on Zoom normally monthly, on the second Tuesday of the month at 2.00 p.m. Members may also like to listen to the news in Latin (pronounced like Italian) on Vatican Radio - Google Hebdomada Papae.
For further details of both groups, or for anyone new wishing to join the groups, please contact the new organiser, Peter Hulse, who has succeeded Nigel Coulton, or email the Branch address below.
These groups are not for beginners: some prior knowledge of the relevant language is necessary to take part in either. For both, please ask the organiser if there is room in the group for more members before joining.