Sympotica graecolatina

Why are mullets so called?

Go straight to sci.lang.sanskrit for a discussion of the etymology of the Sanskrit and Tamil words for 'pearl', which leads on, in the way that these threads do, to the etymology of Latin mugil 'grey mullet'.

A walking tour of ancient Rome

You can do anything on the Web. you can even take a walking tour through Rome at the time of Augustus. This itinerary omits the Suburra for some reason ...

Google in Latin

Search Google in Latin? Of course you can !

(acknowledgments to Viggen at the UNRV Roman Empire forums)

Beer in the Latin Vicipaedia

If you don't want to stop reading Latin, read the Vicipaedia article Cervisia written by Justin Mansfield. He explains: 'It lists various types of beer, with A to Z as the major resource. Names in italics are not attested in Latin, but in other ancient languages (primarily Greek, except for bracata which is a reconstructed Celtic term but might yet turn up in Medieval Latin).'

Some medieval texts

Justin Mansfield pointed me to an on-line copy of Jodocus Willichius, Ars Magirica (Tiguri, 1563) from the Biblioteca Complutense at Madrid. This made me look at the catalogue of their Biblioteca Digital Dioscórides, which appears to be rich in pharmacological, scientific and culinary texts. I note from it three editions of Carolus Clusius's important Latin translation of the Portuguese spice book by García de Orta , plus a supplement or commentary on Orta by Clusius of which I was previously unaware; also a Latin edition and two French editions of the medieval farming book by Petrus de Crescentiis, usually known (though not on these title pages) as Liber commodorum ruralium.

Justin also directed me to Io. Bruyerinus, De Re Cibaria libri xxii (Lyon, 1560) in an on-line edition from the Grewe collection at the University of Barcelona. The catalogue of 16th, 17th and 18th century electronic books of the Grewe collection is here, and I note from it what is perhaps the first printed edition of the Byzantine dietary manual of Simeon Seth: Syntagma trophon dynameon = De alimentorum facultatibus : Greek text with Latin translation by Martinus Bogdanus (Paris, 1658).

Latin Libraries

Here's the Perseus Digital Library of Latin and Greek texts and translations. Here's a less-known competitor, The Latin Library (in which, admittedly, not all the links work). But the Latin Library has more medieval and later Latin. It includes something I had been looking for for a long time, an electronic text of Gregory of Tours' Histories, and something I never expected to find, the erotic lyrics of Joannes Secundus , though on this site he's called Janus Secundus.

Finally, here's a collection of Christian Latin texts in English translation .