Three to go

Dear Diary,

Umpteen down, three TMAs to go (and one examination, but I'm trying not to worry about that).

For the past couple of days I have been fascinated and immersed in books on Pompeii. I particularly like Mary Beard's Poempeii and long to own her Senatus Populusque Romanus but it's like £25 which I don't have.

I am suprised to see a number of primary sources that relate directly to the large-town, the "snap-shot" or "time-capsule" of roughly November, in 79 of the Christian Era. Strabo, Cicero, Tacitus. I am still puzzling over a line in one of Cicero's letters where he mentions Pompeii, the translation I have is ambiguous and so I will of course have to translate it, gladly. It is a shame not much of his poetry is extant.

I have penciled in the case studies of Pompeii (the house of Julia Felix, particularly the frescoes) and Palmyra (I may choose the now blown up Temple of Bel thanks to an act of absurd iconoclasm).

Despite the proto-neo-ultra feminist syllabus of the OU, I am actually really enjoying this module. It kicks serious ass and the TMA rubrics are very profound indeed, touching upon key points of significance throughout the Roman Empire, which was from 27 B.C.E. to 410 C.E.

Righty ho, back to the exercises.