The politics of the UK and US over the past two years has led to an upsurge in populist politics. How far this is distinctively new is open to question—leaving aside precursors in British and American politics, similar trends have been well in evidence in continental Europe and there is a long and ugly history… Continue reading →
As part of the project on Hero of Alexandria and his Theatrical Automata, I’ve been looking at the history of automata in Greek and Roman antiquity. As well as Hero’s treatise, there are occasional brief references to devices that may (or perhaps may not be) automata. The evidence is tantalising and gives hints about how… Continue reading →
Since October 2014, I’ve been working with a team to investigate Hero (Heron) of Alexandria’s treatise On Making Automata (peri automatopoiētikēs). It’s not a very well known or well studied text, but it’s our best detailed evidence for a recognisable sub-field within ancient mechanics and engineering. The devices that Hero describes are powered mainly by… Continue reading →
Welcome to the blog of Classics at Glasgow. We’ll be posting regularly here on the research being conducted in the subject area, both by staff and postgraduate students. We have major ongoing multi-person research projects in the fields of politics (rhetoric) and ancient technology, and other research concentrations in the fields of drama, reception studies… Continue reading →
