Ancient History is......well, ancient history!

And a very good thing, too. My real passion is Medieval History, which is next, but Ancient History has been an enjoyable, and sometimes fun, experience. Of course, it is Middle East and Eurocentric - only a page and a half about the fabulous civilisations in Asia- Siddhartha Gautama was born in India, Chinese civilisations developed along the Hwang-Ho and Yangtze rivers, and that once upon a time there was a fertile river bed of the Tarim River west of the Gobi Desert where civilisations might have developed. But, this book was written in the 30's (1930's not 1830's although it is sometimes difficult to tell) and the focus was Europe.

And what did I learn: epigraphy, a subject, a word I had never heard before -" the study of inscriptions. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a collection of all known inscriptions of Imperial Rome. The language of the CIL is, of course, Latin and supposedly parts of the collection, in book form, cost over €28,000 - a nifty bit of change!

One of the 50 examination questions at the end of the chapter used the word "wrought" - "Who wrought or directed the sculptures on the Parthenon at Athens?" Phidias is the answer, but the word "wrought" intrigued me - where did it come from? Middle English "wrogt" meaning altered, the past participle of "weorken" from Old English "wyrcan" meaning "to work". The only usage I know today is wrought iron.

However, that led to the question of why we say, "go, went, gone" and not "go, gune, gone" or something along that line. There were two common verbs - one of them was "wenden/wendan" from which we now have to "wend your way home". The simple past got stuck between the two forms of "go" while the rest, except for "wend" got lost.

I learned about spelt - a hexaploid species of wheat (and don't you forget it!) - now a "relict" crop in Central Europe, according to one encyclopedia. It might be a relict to the writers of the article but it's an upscale product at the local health food store - filling but expensive.

Of special interest was the history of Italy before the dominance of Rome because of the neighborhood in which I grew up. There was a Catholic church at the corner and many of my neighbors were first generation Catholic Europeans. I was fascinated by the sights and sounds, the foods and customs, especially of the family from Liguria, near Genoa. Nonna Juliana wore black, never learned English, rarely left the house except to go to mass at 6 am and apparently cooked constantly, including in her sleep. She made ravioli, linguine, fettucine - musical names for heavenly food. Olive oil, anchovies, and what we called "tomato pie" - pizza! This in the late 1940's to 1963 when I left home.

Of course, the girls in the family who came to play dolls with me swooned over fried chicken, roast beef and gravy and hard-shelled crabs. Go figure! Well, hard-shelled crabs are still something to swoon over, but not chicken, never chicken!

So - , what did I re-learn: about the alphabets (cuneiform and Phoenician), the various forms of government and how they were adapted to suit changing circumstances, that if I wanted a sculpture, I would get a Greek, if I wanted an aqueduct, I would get a Roman and if I wanted a playwright, I would get either or both.

And, the story of Aeneas: a Trojan, the son of a mortal, Anchises and Venus/Aphrodite. The goddess seduced Anchises, for 2 weeks, no less, and Aeneas was the product of this union. With such a powerful and influential mother, it's no wonder he went through hell (Hades) to become the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome and of Brutus, first king of Britain. His son, Ascanius, founded AlbaLonga, and a long line of kings. I had 6 years of Latin in school but cannot read the inscriptions o building around me - wait until I finish Chapter 14.

Latin, however, has always helped with English and I never regretted those years of Caesar, Cicero and Virgil.

The story of Aeneas, however, led me to wonder about being the offspring of famous parents. Depending on the parents and the environment in which the children are raised, it can probably be hell on earth.

But, and it's a big "but" - what has become evident is that I love learning, especially systemised, organised learning. And, if a part of that is reading about some egomaniacal Roman general who dragged hundreds of princes behind his chariot at a parade in Rome, OK. It's a small price to pay for the intense pleasure of reading, answering the questions, going to my encyclopedia for more information, and the very interesting experience of eating spelt cake. Once!